


Lost Stars

by cherryjaem



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: 2PM's Chansung is only mentioned, Friendship, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Indulgent, Seungmin is precious Hyunjin is whipped, Slow Build, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Wonpil makes occasional appearances, a little dark a little angsty but contains mostly fluff, everyone wants to protect Seungmin, i think, mild panic attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-03-19 06:46:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 47,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13699074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryjaem/pseuds/cherryjaem
Summary: In which Seungmin learns it's okay to put himself first before others, learns to accept and let go.He learns what it's like to fall in love with Hwang Hyunjin.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> umm hi, hello.  
> thank you for clicking on this fic and deciding to give it a chance. i don't have much to say for now. as usual, i'm nervous to share my fics with you all lol but i hope everyone will (somehow) enjoy the story as much as i'm enjoying writing it.
> 
> this first chapter may turn out a little angsty, but trust me when i say it isn't as dark as it seems. (btw trigger warning(?): this first chapter contains mild panic attack)
> 
> Happy Lunar New Year!! i love Seungjin. okay, that is all.

Seungmin carries the last box containing his belongings into their new house, swinging his foot to close the door behind him shut. The house is still messy, boxes of stuff still unpacked, although at least the furniture have all been cleaned and set up. Seungmin sighs and heads to his room upstairs, stomping his feet on the wooden staircase and using that very excuse to pretend he doesn’t hear his mom calling for him from the kitchen. It’s been a long morning, and even though Seungmin loves his mom dearly, he wants nothing more than to be alone right now.

 

Seungmin closes the door of his room and slides the box onto his study table before grabbing his acoustic guitar and taking a seat at the edge of his bed. He crosses his legs on the mattress, fingers absentmindedly strumming the strings of his guitar as he stares at the view overlooking the neighbourhood from the sliding doors leading to the balcony. It’s a peaceful and pretty residential area, no tall apartment buildings blocking the view, and especially the sun when it sets later in the day, so it’s a nice change for once. Seungmin thinks he can try to love that at least, even though he still hates the idea of moving to a new house to start over new, to meet new people and getting used to the new place. He doesn’t know if things will ever be okay again, if he will ever fit in, but then again Seungmin knows he’s always been a misfit everywhere he goes, so it shouldn’t matter anyway.

 

There’s a knock on the door, and then another before it opens, creaking slightly. “Hey.”

 

Seungmin stops strumming his guitar and looks back at the door to see Wonpil poking his head into the room. He can’t stop the small smile from making its way onto his face at the sight of his older brother. “Hey.”

 

Wonpil grins. “You wanna have lunch together with us? Then help me out with cleaning my room after.”

 

“Ugh,” Seungmin scrunches his nose playfully. “I need to clean my room, too, you know.”

 

“Okay you can do that after we clean mine.”

 

“Why can’t we clean mine first?”

 

“Because I asked you first! Now come down and eat before I finish all the foods!”

 

Seungmin laughs in disbelief, but it’s also laced with fondness for his older brother. He can never say no to Wonpil, nor can he ever get mad at him. Ahh, Seungmin remembers another best part of this now. Moving here means they’re living closer to the hospital where Wonpil’s doing his residency program at, which also means Wonpil is going to be staying in the same house with them again. It’s a comforting thought to Seungmin knowing he’ll be seeing his brother more often. Well, at least more than the past two years.

 

Seungmin doesn’t ask for anything from anyone but with his brother, he’s a little bit braver because he knows Wonpil will never say no to him too, so he asks “Can we have ice cream for desserts?”

 

Wonpil’s smile softens at that. “Of course.” Seungmin smiles back, sets the guitar down on his bed and goes downstairs with Wonpil to have their lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

Even though Seungmin feels tired from unpacking and organizing things earlier that day, sleep refuses to come to him at night. He feels exhausted not just physically but mentally as well from these questions and thoughts that he doesn’t know how to shut off. The comfort of the mattress and blanket is familiar, as well as the silence and yet something about it isn’t. Maybe it’s the shape of the room, the way the moonlight illuminates certain areas and casting unfamiliar shadows on the floor and on the walls. Whatever it is, it’s causing discomfort to Seungmin that it makes it harder for him to fall asleep.

 

He stares at the digital clock on his nightstand, watches the minute ticks by painfully slow. He finally gets up from the bed when it’s a quarter past 3 in the morning and makes his way to Wonpil’s room right across of his.

 

Wonpil’s room is dark and quiet, the sound of his steady breathing can barely be heard even when Seungmin’s standing close to his bed like this. Seungmin pulls the blanket up and makes himself comfortable on the bed, hugging Wonpil and nuzzling his face on his brother’s chest. Wonpil moves slightly, humming in confusion but the rub of his hand on Seungmin’s back is warm and welcoming.

 

“Can’t sleep?” Wonpil asks, voice raspy from slumber. “Sleep, sleep,” he mumbles when Seungmin only nods his head, the rubs on Seungmin’s back turns to pats as if it’ll help to put Seungmin to sleep quicker. Silence takes over again few minutes later, Wonpil already falling back to sleep. Seungmin listens to Wonpil’s breathing, trying to focus on the rise and fall of his chest instead of fighting with the voice inside his head. Then, without intending to, Seungmin asks with a small voice “Hyung, did dad leave us because of me?”

 

Seungmin only notices Wonpil has not fallen asleep when his older brother shifts his body a little so he can look at him. “What?”

 

“Did dad leave us because of me?” Seungmin repeats himself anyway. “Because I’m not good enough for him?”

 

“Seungmin, what— of course not,” Wonpil frowns, seemingly more awake now than he was few minutes ago. “Don’t say that.”

 

“But he said I’m an embarrassment to the family, a disgra—.”

 

“Seungmin, look at me,” Wonpil says in a stern voice, hand cupping Seungmin’s cheek. Seungmin blinks the tears that he didn’t even know were there in the first place and looks at Wonpil. “You’re _not_ all those things he called you. You are better than what he said. You are precious and amazing to me, to mom. He didn’t leave us because of you. We left _him_ because our happiness is not with him. We’re better off without him, do you understand me?”

 

Seungmin frowns because he doesn’t. He doesn’t understand a lot of things; of how things change, of why people change, of what happened to their dad. Sure, their dad is a scary man, but— but he wasn’t always like that. Seungmin still holds the memories of his childhood with his dad dear to his heart, how their dad was a great man, how his smile would light up Seungmin’s world, how he would take Seungmin and Wonpil out to play baseball, how he’d always praise Seungmin over every little good things he did. Their dad was always a kind man, until one day, he wasn’t anymore.

 

“Hyung, maybe if I were a little bit clever like you, he would’ve liked me more. If I could be a doctor like him and mom and you, maybe he would be proud of me and wouldn’t leave us.”

 

“Seungmin,” Wonpil whimpers. Seungmin allow his brother to hug him tight against his chest. “Please. It’s not your fault.”

 

“Then whose is it?” Seungmin asks again. There has to be a reason, isn’t it? Why things changed, why people changed, why their dad left the family. _It’s you_ , the voice says. _It’s always been you._ Wonpil is saying something else but Seungmin can’t hear with the sobs escaping his mouth, the warm tears rolling down his cheeks and the voice laughing at him.

 

“I’m sorry,” Seungmin says.

 

“It’s not your fault,” Wonpil reminds him again.

 

 _But it is_ , the voice interrupts. The voice always win.

 

 

 

 

Seungmin drums his fingers on the desk as he stares at the page of the online form, fingers making _tap, tap, tap_ sound against the surface. The rhythm is as inconsistent as the thoughts running in his head, going a mile a minute and then slowing down as he looks through the classes offered in the college he was accepted in. He sighs heavily, finger hesitantly circling on a major he’s interested in but knows won’t make anyone happy. In the end, he closes his laptop and pushes the chair to stand up and leave his room. Maybe he’ll look and think it over again tomorrow, even though that’s exactly what he said yesterday, and the week before.

 

“Tomorrow. Definitely,” Seungmin nods to himself. Right now, he figures he could take a walk around the neighborhood to breathe in fresh air and clear his (always messy) mind, even if just for a bit.

 

The murmur of voices leads him to his mom’s room downstairs, where Seungmin finds her asleep with the television still on. Seungmin grabs the remote control and turns the television off. He fixes the blanket on her and lets out the softest smile when he presses a kiss on her forehead. He turns the lights off and closes the door before grabbing his jacket on the coat rack, slips his shoes on and walks out that door.

  
  
  


It’s even quieter at night in the neighborhood than in the day, the sound of a dog barking from somewhere far can be heard echoing in the air. Seungmin doesn't know where he's headed to, no idea where his feet are going to lead him, but it doesn't matter. He doesn't have any destination in mind, not in the new place anyway, so he’ll just keep on walking until he arrives somewhere. Maybe he’s going in circles and will end up at their home again somehow.

 

Except he doesn't.

 

It feels like he's been walking for hours and his legs have started to feel tired and yet there's still no sight of their home anywhere. The houses around him, the streets and even the road signs are all unfamiliar, and Seungmin suddenly feels worried because he thinks he might be lost. The panic bubbles up more when he realizes he didn't bring his phone with him, didn't even leave any notes before he left the house, so now he’s lost _and_ he’s missing from home. That can't be good. Seungmin thinks about how worried his mom and brother will be to find out he’s not at home, and then the thoughts escalated quickly to him not being able to see them again. He knows deep in his heart it’s just a useless thought, knows that he can go home again safe and sound if he would just calm down and look around again. But his thoughts have a mind, a life of their own and Seungmin just can't stop them from manifesting negatively.

 

Seungmin falters and feels his back colliding with the brick fence behind him, sliding down so he can hug his knees to his chest, where a dull pain’s starting to form. He feels the blood draining from his face, hears the ringing in his ears, feels the trembles move from his hands to the rest of his body, hot tears trickling down his cheeks.

 

He shouldn't have went out like this, he thinks to himself. _Why do you always cause so much troubles? Why do you make people worry about you? Why are you so useless? Seungmin, why? Why? Why?_

 

“Stop it,” he says, shutting his eyes closed and pressing his hands to his ears to block the sound off. It’s a useless attempt because the voice comes from inside his head and not from somewhere outside.

 

“Shit.”

 

Now that’s a voice Seungmin’s never heard of before and it’s definitely not from inside his head, but he's too distracted to make sure of it. “Are you o-okay?” the voice asks again. There’s a vague sound of a plastic bag falling onto the ground with a thud, urgent footsteps heading towards his way makes the alarm goes off in Seungmin’s head.

 

“I’m sorry!” he shouts, effectively stopping whoever it is on their tracks. “I’m sorry. Please don't hurt me,” Seungmin cries and curls into himself more. God, he really is stupid and useless and a disgrace. He shouldn't have went out like this if he would just get lost and cause trouble to his family, to everyone. Maybe he should-

 

“Hey, it’s okay,” the voice says. “You’re okay. I’m not gonna hurt you,” he continues, voice soft and soothing. Seungmin lets out a hiccup and braves himself to look up at the person. Of course, with tears in his eyes and the dim streetlights, Seungmin can’t see clearly. The stranger keeps his distance from Seungmin, and Seungmin finds comfort in it. “My name is Hyunjin. Hwang Hyunjin. What's yours?”

 

Hyunjin, Seungmin mutters after the said guy. That’s a pretty name, he muses to himself. He wipes the tears on his face with the sleeve of his jacket, takes a deep breath in and lets it out. From there, Seungmin focuses on trying to steady his breathing instead of answering Hyunjin’s question.

 

“You’re not hurt, are you?” Hyunjin tries again. This time, Seungmin makes an effort to shake his head. “That’s good. That’s really good,” Seungmin can hear the relief in his voice. “Can I come closer? Is that okay?”

 

Seungmin doesn't answer again, but doesn't make an indication that he's rejecting Hyunjin’s request either. When Seungmin sees Hyunjin slowly moving closer through his peripheral view and doesn't feel as scared about it like he thought he would, Seungmin decides that he’s okay with it after all.

 

“Are you new around here?” Hyunjin asks. Seungmin sniffles and nods his head curtly. “Are you lost?”

 

Seungmin whimpers in embarrassment, not sure if it’s because a stranger found him in this state, or at the fact that even at this age, Seungmin manages to lose his way home or if it’s because this Hyunjin guy is talking to Seungmin like Seungmin is a kid that needs to be treated carefully and with patience, light aegyo laced in his voice. It’s probably all of the above, quite honestly. Seungmin takes another deep breath in and out, and then another, and another until Seungmin feels his heartbeat slowing down and calmness starts to slowly seep into his being again. He swallows, trying to think properly on how he’s going to find his way back home.

 

“Are you feeling better now?” Hyunjin says, startling Seungmin a little bit because of course he manages to forget there’s someone else there with him.

 

“Yeah,” Seungmin affirms sheepishly. Hyunjin had stayed quiet and waited patiently for him to calm down and say something, and Seungmin feels embarrassed to have kept him waiting.

 

“Are you lost?” Hyunjin asks again. There’s no humor in his question, just a pure curiosity to find out what’s wrong and if he could help in any way. “Do you want me to help?”

 

Seungmin lifts his gaze up at this, finally noticing Hyunjin is sitting on his heels a few meters away from Seungmin himself. He still can’t see Hyunjin properly because the streetlights are shit and are only causing half of Hyunjin’s face to be covered in shadows, but Seungmin does see glimpses of the nose and his full lips. His eyes are also strangely twinkling even under the bad lighting.

 

Seungmin doesn’t know if it’s a good idea to accept help from Hyunjin, who is literally still a stranger to him, but being left alone to figure out how to get back home on his own doesn’t sound like an appealing idea either. He contemplates and Hyunjin doesn’t say anything or urge him to hurry up, that Seungmin feels bad for making him wait again. In the end, he says a quiet “Yeah…”

 

Seungmin thinks he sees the edges of Hyunjin’s lips are pulled up into a smile, just slightly, and Seungmin suddenly feels shy. His cheeks feel warm but he’s thankful the bad lighting won’t make him get caught of blushing at least. “Do you have someone you want to call?”

 

“My brother,” Seungmin quickly says, frowning when he adds “But I left my phone at home.”

 

Hyunjin acknowledges with a thoughtful press of his lips. “I’d lend you my phone but I left it at home to charge as well.”

 

“Ohh…”

 

“It’s okay though! My house is nearby. We can drop by to get my phone first and then you can call your family,” Hyunjin suggests, already getting up again to fetch the plastic bag he had dropped. Then Hyunjin rummages through the bag as he makes his way to Seungmin, handing Seungmin something. “What do you think?”

 

Eyeing the thing in Hyunjin’s hand curiously, Seungmin realizes it’s a lollipop. Hyunjin encourages Seungmin to take it, so he does, albeit a little hesitantly.

 

“Sounds good, yeah? My house is this way. Let’s go,” Hyunjin beckons his head towards the street at the corner of where they’re currently at. Seungmin stands up, having last minute doubt as he looks at Hyunjin with calculative eyes. As if sensing Seungmin’s fear, Hyunjin offers a smile and says “I’m not going to hurt you. It’ll be okay. We’ll get you home.”

 

“Okay,” Seungmin decides and takes a step forward, following Hyunjin a few meters behind. They walk in silence, only accompanied by the sound of their footsteps on the pavement, with Hyunjin turning his head around often to make sure Seungmin is still following him.

 

It turns out Hyunjin’s house is _not_ as near as he said it was after all. They had to turn corners couple of times and walk up a steep hill before entering another street. Seungmin perks up as he looks around them, at the familiar houses and surrounding. Before long, sure enough, he sees their home in the distance, sees his room with the curtains still wide open and can’t help but beam with relief.

 

“My house is at the end of the–,” Before Hyunjin can finish his sentence, Seungmin runs towards his home. “Hey!” Hyunjin calls after him. Seungmin only turns around once he opens the gate and steps inside their property.

 

“Umm, this is my house,” he explains.

 

“Oh?” Hyunjin stops to look, absentmindedly nodding his head as he makes careful observation of the house. “Ah, so your family are the ones who moved here! The house has been empty for so long after the Horvejkuls moved to Busan,” he says. “That means we’re neighbors! My house is right over there,” Hyunjin points to a certain direction. Seungmin tries to see where Hyunjin’s pointing at but isn’t really sure where exactly it is, so he just nods his head.

 

“Thank you,” Seungmin bows his head slightly, scurrying to the front door after saying good night to Hyunjin and closing the gates. When he steps inside the house, he finds out that Wonpil is already home, carrying what seems like an empty cup of noodles from his room upstairs. Wonpil is still wearing the clothes he used when he left yesterday morning, the half-circles under his eyes darker than Seungmin remembers them to be.

 

“Oh, where have you been? I thought you were already asleep,” Wonpil asks when he reaches the bottom of the staircase.

 

“Nowhere,” Seungmin quickly shakes his head and hides the lollipop inside his jacket’s pocket that only gains him a suspicious look from Wonpil. “But I _am_ going to sleep now. Good night, hyung,” Seungmin gives Wonpil a hug and runs up the stairs to his room, glad that he could escape the scene before his mouth blurted out about him being lost and helped out by a stranger. That would only make Wonpil worried and Seungmin doesn’t want that.

 

Entering his room, the first thing Seungmin does is to close the curtains of the balcony doors. As he is about to pull the curtains, he notices a back figure of someone at the streets and realizes–by the outfits he’s wearing– it’s Hyunjin. Seungmin watches quietly, just to see where Hyunjin actually lives at. He finds out it’s the house across of the streets, four blocks away from their house, and Seungmin nods to himself at the information. His eyes widen in surprise when Hyunjin turns to look at his direction and Seungmin quickly pulls the curtains shut. He turns off the lights in the room and hides himself under the blanket without bothering to change his clothes, pressing his hand on his chest and feeling it beating fast against his palm.

 

“Calm down,” he whispers to his heart, rubbing his chest gently. Seungmin remembers about the lollipop that Hyunjin gave to him and fishes it out of the pocket to look at it. Unknowingly, a smile creeps onto his face. He gently settles the candy on his nightstand next to his digital clock and kind of just stares at it, for once no thoughts in his head other than thoughts of Hyunjin occupying his mind. Maybe if he sees Hyunjin again, he'll thank him properly and give him something in return of his help and the lollipop.

 

Maybe. Just, maybe.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a short chapter. happy weekends!

Seungmin has been standing at the candies and snacks section at the supermarket for god knows how long now, frowning at the amount of candies and chocolates there are. He wasn't expecting them to come in so many different brands and types like this and now he doesn't know which one he's going to choose to get. Seungmin had come to the supermarket with both his mom and brother to get groceries, but after standing with him there for a solid 5 minutes and having no indication Seungmin was going to get anything, they've decided to split and will come back to him again later, which Seungmin only vaguely remembers agreeing to. A few more minutes must have passed since then but Seungmin is still unsure of what to get.

 

“Will he like the classic Maltesers?” Seungmin murmurs to himself, taking the red packet into his hand. “Or maybe some gummy candies?” He takes a packet of gummy bear candy into his other hand. “Ah this is even harder than choosing which college to apply to.”

 

“Aren't you exaggerating?” A voice interrupts his moment. Seungmin yelps and almost jumps in surprise because he did not notice there’s someone else there beside him and doesn’t know how long they've been standing there! His cheeks heat up when he realizes the familiar voice and figure is Hyunjin. “If you can't choose then just get both?” he suggests without looking at Seungmin, filling his shopping basket with different types of jelly candies with expert hand, like he already knows and is sure what he wanted to get beforehand. “This one is nice too. Sweet and sour,” Hyunjin grabs a packet of sour belts and shows it to Seungmin, finally meeting Seungmin’s eyes. “Oh my god?” His mouth drops open in surprise and Seungmin looks away, hand self-consciously patting on his bangs just in case they're messy. “You're even so much cuter in good lighting!”

 

“Huh?” Seungmin flicks a confused gaze at Hyunjin and is taken by surprise when a hand ruffles his hair. “You're so cute!”

 

Seungmin feels his cheeks getting even warmer at the comment and at Hyunjin touching his hair, but especially at how good looking Hyunjin is as well, now that Seungmin can see him clearly. Hyunjin is wearing a hoodie covering his lightly damp hair, which is a little messy but still looks good in Seungmin’s opinion. From this up close, Seungmin can see the mole under his left eye and how pink his lips are. The said lips are curled into a huge grin that shows a row of perfect, white teeth, the grin itself making Hyunjin’s eyes crinkle beautifully. Seungmin feels his heart skipping a beat and has to look away because he can't handle how pretty Hyunjin is.

 

“What's your name?” Hyunjin asks. “You never told me that night.”

 

“Oh. Umm,” Seungmin plays with the packets in his hands, trying to distract himself from the nerves he's feeling. He’d played out so many scenarios in his head on when he meets Hyunjin again and what kind of conversation he should make with the said guy, but finding himself forgetting everything he'd taken notes on. His brain is really such a useless thing most of the time, Seungmin curses in his head. “Seungmin…”

 

“Seungminnie?”

 

“No,” Seungmin blinks and shakes his head, feeling shy of the name Hyunjin just said. “Just Seungmin. Kim Seungmin.”

 

“Ah,” Hyunjin says, picking up his shopping basket. “Kim Seungminnie. Got it,” Hyunjin snaps his finger and thumb together and gives a teasing smile at Seungmin. “The name is as cute as you are. You can call me Hyunjin hyung!”

 

“Hyung?” Seungmin cocks his head to the side in question, his action unexpectedly making Hyunjin bursts out laughing and gaining a few curious stares thrown their way. Seungmin actually feels embarrassed by the sudden attention on them but Hyunjin on the other hand doesn't seem to care as much.

 

“Ack you're really so cute, Seungminnie!”

 

“I-it’s Seungmin!” he tries to correct Hyunjin although he knows it's probably a useless attempt seeing how Hyunjin’s been insistent on calling him Seungminnie anyway. “And don't lie to me. You don't look any older than I am…”

 

“Oh yeah? How old are you then?”

 

“Twenty…”

 

“Really?” Hyunjin looks genuinely surprised. “Wow I really thought you were at least a year or two younger than me. We’re the same age after all. When is your birthday?”

 

“Huh? Umm in September.”

 

“Mine is in March so I'm technically still older than you! Call me hyung.”

 

Seungmin blinks his eyes at Hyunjin innocently at his ridiculous request and says, “Umm. No.” Hyunjin’s laughter rings again, hearty and high pitched and contagious that Seungmin has to suppress the laughter begging to escape his mouth and clears his throat, although he's unable to stop the small smile from appearing on his face, oddly pleased to have made Hyunjin laughed.

 

“I'm just joking,” Hyunjin’s laughter fades into a smile. “Anyway I'm really glad I met you here. I wasn’t sure it was you at first, but thank god it’s really you.”

 

Seungmin blushes again but tries to smile back at Hyunjin. Then he sees Wonpil from behind Hyunjin, walking to where he is.

 

“Did you pick something?” Wonpil asks as he stops beside Seungmin. “Or someone…?” his eyes drifts to Hyunjin.

 

“Hyung!” Seungmin hits Wonpil’s arm in disapproval. Hyunjin only grins and bows at Wonpil.

 

“Hello! I'm Hwang Hyunjin. Nice to meet you!”

 

“Hello. I'm Seungmin’s brother, Kim Wonpil,” Wonpil introduces himself politely.

 

“Oh!” Hyunjin acknowledges. “He really looks like you, too.”

 

“Thankfully. He's lucky he ends up looking handsome like me,” Wonpil jokes and Hyunjin laughs again. Seungmin watches in silence as Wonpil and Hyunjin continue on with their conversation, unsure of when or how to join. Seungmin envies Hyunjin a little because it's so easy for him to make talks and acquaintances, envies Hyunjin for being so carefree and happy like this. Seungmin wishes he was a little bit more like Hyunjin. Maybe then people will like him more…

 

“You should come over and have dinner with us sometimes,” Wonpil says, his invitation snapping Seungmin off from falling deeper into his thoughts. He looks at Hyunjin, then at Wonpil and then back at Hyunjin again when he says “I would love to!”

  
  
  


Later, after they're done shopping and are heading back home with their car, Seungmin takes something out from one of his jacket’s pockets and reads the words written on the packaging of the candy (“Extreme!!” “New flavors” “Tropical Fruits”) and wonders if he should try it. He didn't get anything except the Maltesers and gummy bears he already had in his hands, which Wonpil had taken thinking Seungmin wanted them, but Hyunjin had slipped the candy into Seungmin’s pocket while he waited for Wonpil and their mom outside of the supermarket.

 

“Try them, okay?” Hyunjin had said. Seungmin’s hands were full with stuffs he had to carry so he was unable to check what it was until they're settled in the car. He had wanted to get something for Hyunjin but in the end, it was Hyunjin who got something for him _again_.

 

Seungmin puffs his cheeks out, half annoyed and half regretful, and tears the packet from the side. He later finds out the candy is rainbow colored and apparently comes in one long strip that he has to rip or bite it off into smaller pieces if he wants to eat.

 

“How'd you know Hyunjin?” Wonpil asks from the driver’s seat, looking at Seungmin through the rear-view mirror. Seungmin hums and thoughtlessly says “I was lost and he helped me find the way back home.” tearing the candy and putting it in his mouth.

 

“You were lost??” Both Wonpil and his mom echo, the same time Seungmin scrunches his whole face from the shocking sourness bursting his palate so the worry is quickly replaced with laughter.

 

“Oh my god, it's _so_ sour!” Seungmin complains, eyes squeezing shut and a hand covering his mouth in an attempt to endure the sour taste, chewing quickly so he can swallow and get rid of it from his mouth.

 

“Let me have some,” Wonpil says. Seungmin looks at the offensive candy, ripping it in smaller amount (he loves Wonpil and doesn't want him to die because of the candy) before feeding it to Wonpil. “Oh my god, you weren't kidding,” Wonpil agrees, the effect of the sour taste is immediate and causes him to scrunch his face too. “Hey, this is good to keep me awake at work, though. Give it to me if you don't want it.”

 

“I never said I didn't want it,” Seungmin defends, pulling the packet away from Wonpil’s reach (not that he can grab it in the first place anyway). He might not like the candy very much (or at all) but it's still something that Hyunjin had given to him so he should at least appreciate and try to finish it, no matter how long it'll take him to do so.

 

“So, who is this Hyunjin we’re talking about?” their mom asks curiously.

 

“He lives near our house apparently,” Wonpil answers. “I told him to come over for dinner sometimes. He seems like a good kid.”

 

Seungmin feels muted excitement as well as a little nervous at the thought of Hyunjin coming over to their house. He thinks about the what ifs— what if Hyunjin comes when Wonpil is at work? Will Seungmin have to be the only one to entertain their guest? What if Seungmin says the wrong thing? What if Hyunjin finds him boring? What if Hyunjin gets bored of him right after and doesn't want to be friends with him anymore?

 

_You’re not even friends yet, you idiot_. Seungmin sighs but agrees, feeling his mood slowly dampening. He shoves his hand into his pocket and hums in wonder when he feels his fingers make contact with a piece of rough tissue paper. He takes it out, unfolds it and is surprised to see a message scribbled in messy handwriting.

 

_Find me on kkt! hhj203_

  * _hyunjinnie :)_



 

Seungmin blushes. _Again_. He doesn't know why Hyunjin has that kind of effect on him even if he's not physically there. Annoyed and embarrassed of himself, Seungmin takes the sour belt again and pops it into his mouth as a _get a grip, please, Kim Seungmin!_ note to himself.

 

If Wonpil sees what Seungmin did, he doesn't comment on it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next update will be on the next weekend? no promises tho orz

Seungmin is sitting outside on the stairs of the porch connected to the living room downstairs since half an hour ago. He stares at the brochures in his hand with a frown, feeling the all too familiar frustration and stress building up inside of him. He crumples the edge of the papers and slams them on the ground next to him and decides to focus on the guitar on his lap instead.

 

The strums are angry at first, the sound nothing more than to just drown his thoughts. It's been two weeks now since registration for classes had been opened online and yet Seungmin hasn't decided on anything. Wonpil’s told him not to worry too much about it, to just try any classes Seungmin is interested in. After all, Seungmin will have the whole year to explore and try multiple fields if he wants to before declaring his major. But...it’s just not as easy as it seems. There _are_ so many things to worry about- being responsible of his choice, making people happy with his decision, choosing the right path for his future ahead…Fulfilling people’s expectation versus following his dream, which one is the right choice in the end?

 

Seungmin exhales heavily, his fingers now playing one of his favorite songs on his guitar. The strum is softer, slower and quieter, sadness and uncertainty tinged on the edge of the notes. He thinks, thinks, _thinks_ because it's the only thing his mind is good at, torturing him with unnecessary thoughts, that is.

 

“ _But are we all lost stars trying to light up the dark?_ ”

 

_“Who are we? Just a speck of dust within the galaxy…”_

 

“Wow!”

 

Seungmin stops abruptly and whips his head up towards where the voice came from, gasping when he sees Hyunjin on the other side of the fence, with his arms crossed and leaned on top of the barrier separating them.

 

“I didn't know you sing!” Hyunjin grins. “Beautifully, too. Say kimchi!”

 

“Wha—” before Seungmin can finish his sentence, Hyunjin lifts a camera up hung from around his neck and snaps a candid picture of Seungmin. “...are you a stalker now or what?”

 

“A paparaJin,” Hyunjin giggles. Seungmin presses his lips together in mock distaste, gets up from the floor and takes his guitar back inside. “I'm kidding!” Hyunjin’s giggles turn to loud laughter. Seungmin bites the smile from forming on his face and slides the door close, Hyunjin’s laughter now muffled. Seungmin only allows himself to smile once he is out of Hyunjin’s sight, noticing his heartbeat picking up again. He takes a peek outside through the curtain and is half surprised and half disappointed to see Hyunjin has left and nowhere to be found anymore.

 

“Ah, why did he leave so soon,” Seungmin pouts. “You idiot, you shouldn't have walked inside,” he reprimands himself with a light hit of his hand on the top of his head. Just then, the bell rings.

 

“Coming,” says Seungmin’s mom. He sees her walking down the hallway to open the door while Seungmin sinks himself into the couch in self-pity, fingers unknowingly strumming a broken-hearted song.

 

“Good afternoon!” Seungmin’s ears perk up at the voice, putting his guitar aside to listen more. “I'm Hwang Hyunjin. Is Seungmin around?”

 

_Pshhh, he knows I am_ , Seungmin thinks to himself, getting up from the couch when his mom calls for him. He pokes his head out to the hallway and squints his eyes at the entrance door down the hall, where Hyunjin is waving his hand at Seungmin very enthusiastically. “Hi!” is what he says.

 

“Um, hi?” Seungmin greets back. A part of him is happy to see that Hyunjin hadn’t left yet but another part of him is also a little nervous thinking of what brought him here to their home.

 

“Ma’am, can I take Seungmin out with me to the park?” Hyunjin asks Seungmin’s mom. She blinks in surprise, unsure of what to say.

 

“Well I don't know about that, Hyunjin. Ask him yourself, maybe? After all, it's up to him,” she says. They both avert their eyes at Seungmin, who cowers slightly under their gaze.

 

“You wanna go out?” Hyunjin asks with wiggled eyebrows. “There's a recreational park nearby. You can bring your guitar.”

 

“The last time you said nearby, it wasn't near. At all,” Seungmin murmurs under his breath but Hyunjin seems to hear it the same by the way he snickers at Seungmin’s words. Seungmin bites on his lower lip contemplatively. “What are we gonna do there?”

 

“You have to come along to find out!”

 

Seungmin’s mom laughs as Seungmin stares at Hyunjin in disbelief. That guy...is good in making people curious, to say the least. Who knows what else he's good at, honestly.

 

“Sweetie, I think you should go. It's good to get out of the house every once in a while,” his mom smiles at him fondly. How does Seungmin say no to that now? Not that he was going to, though…

 

“I guess I’ll...go and check out the park? Then we can go together some other day,” Seungmin says, walking to the entrance door and putting his jacket on.

 

“Great. It'll be fun!” Hyunjin says. “I'll bring him back home before dinner, ma’am.”

 

“I'm not a kid, you know?” Seungmin mumbles as he slips his shoes on. His mom and Hyunjin share a laugh together.

 

“Not gonna bring your guitar?” She asks. Seungmin shakes his head and hugs her before leaving the house with a wave of his hand.

 

“You're cute,” Hyunjin comments with a smile. Seungmin prays to God his cheeks won't betray him and show they're as warm as he feels. “Are you the youngest in your family?”

 

“Mhmm,” Seungmin hums. He lets Hyunjin guides the way and follows him by his side. “What about you?”

 

“Same!” Hyunjin answers. “I only have an older brother too but he's already married and lives somewhere else so it's just me left at home with my parents.”

 

“Ah I hope Wonpil hyung won't get married so soon,” Seungmin says. He's aware of how selfish and ridiculous that sounds but he hopes he can still live under the same roof with his brother for another few more years.

 

“You're scared of getting lonely?” Hyunjin chuckles but his tone sounds understanding. “My brother still visits home from time to time and if he doesn't, my parents and I invite ourselves to their house. You can do that too when your brother gets married and lives in his own house.”

 

Seungmin gives a small smile. He wishes it's as easy as Hyunjin made it out to be but Seungmin worries too much. Of course Wonpil is his own brother but Seungmin wouldn't dare to do things as he pleased, afraid of what other people will say, afraid of being a burden and annoyance to other people, afraid of being hated on. He doesn't know if Hyunjin will understand how he feels, but maybe it's better that he doesn't.

 

“Oh by the way, did you try the sour belts?” Hyunjin asks, excitement in his voice and the crinkles of his eyes. Seungmin remembers the taste and shudders.

 

“I can't believe you tried to murder me with that,” Seungmin jokes, easily making Hyunjin laughs. It's too easy to amuse Hyunjin, Seungmin thinks to himself.

 

“It's not _that_ bad! Well I guess the _first_ bite is too strong but it gets better after that. Something about your tongue being numb to the sourness,” Hyunjin explains, his hands making useless gestures to make his point clear. “The original flavor is good. The strawberry one. It isn't as sour.”

 

“Why didn't you get me that one instead?”

 

“Where's the fun in _that_?” Hyunjin sticks his tongue out playfully. Seungmin rolls his eyes at Hyunjin. “Did you...see the note I gave?” He carefully brings it up. Seungmin notices Hyunjin isn't looking at him anymore but rather at the camera hung around his neck, randomly clicking the buttons and then looking at the viewfinder. Seungmin might've imagined it but there's a light tint of red on Hyunjin’s cheeks. Seungmin wonders if Hyunjin is feeling shy but decides it’s probably because of the heat.

 

“I did,” Seungmin admits, feeling his own cheeks heating up. _Damn it_! He still keeps the note but Hyunjin doesn't have to know that. God, he hopes Hyunjin never finds out about it, either. It would be embarrassing if he did.

 

“Huh?” Hyunjin asks with clear confusion, voice an octave higher than his usual. It's hilarious, if Seungmin was to be honest about it, if only Hyunjin doesn’t put on the kicked puppy look on his face. Too adorable for Seungmin to handle that he can only stare at Hyunjin in awe. “Then why didn't you find me on kakaotalk?”

 

“Oh,” Seungmin swallows and looks away, suddenly feeling embarrassed. “I...I don't use that app.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because…” Seungmin trails off, his voice quieter when he says “I don't have anyone I could use it with. My family use whatsapp for our group chat and that's it…”

 

Hyunjin doesn't reply immediately but Seungmin can feel Hyunjin’s eyes on him, which only makes him wish the ground would open up and swallow him whole. Hyunjin is going to think he's a sore loser now for not having any friends, and maybe even have weird thoughts on _why_ he doesn't have any friends. Maybe he should've used better excuses, but that's the thing: he can't lie.

 

“Okay, here's what you’re gonna do later when you get back home,” Hyunjin announces, surprising Seungmin with his voice suddenly breaking the silence. “You're going to download the app, register and add me as your friend.”

 

“Hmm?” Seungmin blinks.

 

“Scratch that. We're doing it now. Phone,” Hyunjin holds his hand out in a gesture demanding for Seungmin to give him his phone. Seungmin stares at Hyunjin’s hand dumbly but surrenders his phone in defeat (after unlocking it) when Hyunjin gives him a look. Hyunjin turns silence, focused on tapping on the phone to search for the said app, download and install. Seungmin won't say it out loud but Hyunjin looks kind of...handsome when he's so focused like this, with his eyebrows pulled together and lips slightly pouted.

 

“Okay, all that's left for you to do is to register using your phone number,” Hyunjin hands the phone back to Seungmin. “Then you're all set.”

 

“Umm okay,” Seungmin types in his phone number and receives a verification code no longer after that. “Okay, I guess I'm registered now?”

 

“Great! I'll find and add you up.” Hyunjin takes his phone out from his pocket and unlocks it.

 

“How will you find me? Wait, what's my username? How do I change it?”

 

Hyunjin gives a mysterious grin. “Don't worry about it,” he says, tapping something on his phone. “Done.”

 

Seungmin feels his phone vibrates indicating a new notification has just come in. He sees Hyunjin’s face on the display picture and can't help but smile.

 

“Add me backkkkk,” Hyunjin nudges his elbow on Seungmin’s side.

 

“How do I add you back?”

 

“Oh my god, can you not be so cute, please?” Hyunjin laughs, pressing the add button for Seungmin. “There. Yeayyy we’re friends now~” he waves his phone at Seungmin. “I have someone new to bother.”

 

“Is that a good thing?”

 

“Good for me at least,” Hyunjin winks. Or at least tried to. Seungmin laughs at his failed attempt. “Wow.”

 

“What?”  Seungmin giggles and exits the kakaotalk app on his phone, only to have it snatched by Hyunjin. “Hey! Okay, I'm sorry I laughed at you. Can I have my phone back?”

 

“Sure,” Hyunjin agrees. “Only if you take a picture with me.”

 

“What?”

 

“Come on,” Hyunjin stops walking and finds an angle to fit them both in the front camera. Seungmin stops walking too, awkwardly standing beside Hyunjin. “Smile!” Hyunjin says, so Seungmin does. “See, isn't this better than a plain homescreen wallpaper?” Seungmin only understands what Hyunjin is saying when he sees the new picture set as his wallpaper— the picture of them both that Hyunjin had just taken. It really came out better than expected even on first and only take. “And for the record, I don't mind you laughing at me. You should laugh more often because it’s good for you and you look even cuter when you laugh,” Hyunjin says, nothing but sincerity in his words. Hyunjin really needs to stop making him blush, Seungmin thinks. It's really getting out of hands on how often his cheeks are red because of Hyunjin.

 

“I guess,” Seungmin clears his throat and they don't touch on the subject again.

 

Seungmin doesn't know how long they've been walking but they have finally arrived at the said recreational park. There seems to be a lot of people that afternoon considering it’s a weekend, families are seen playing at the park with their kids or with their pets, picnic mats laid on the grass, and some are even seen cycling on the walk paths. Seungmin can say he's enjoying the sight and sound, and especially the nice weather (sunny with cool breeze) that day that allows people to have good times like this with their loved ones. He definitely will take his mom and Wonpil here too someday when they have the time. Having a picnic here surrounded by greenery already sounds nice to him.

 

“Oh there they are,” Hyunjin says, snapping Seungmin from his thoughts. “Hey guys!” He waves at a group of boys sitting on the same bench at a more secluded part of the park and Seungmin freezes on his spot.

 

“H-Hyunjin,” Seungmin calls, having the guy immediately turned around to look at him even though he was about to jog to the bench. Seungmin doesn't know what Hyunjin sees on his face but it can't be anything good if Hyunjin suddenly looks worried like this.

 

“Hey, what is it?” Hyunjin approaches Seungmin. “Are you okay?”

 

“W-Who are those people?” His eyes briefly shift to the bench again and he notices there's seven of them gathered there, before his gaze goes unfocused and breathing turning ragged. Fuck, he can't do this right now. He wasn't expecting to meet new people here, let alone seven of them at the same time!

 

“They're my friends,” he hears Hyunjin says.

 

“Th-ere’s so many of t-them, Hyunjin. I...I can't,” Seungmin stutters. What if he fucks up? What if he embarrassed himself in front of them? What if they asked him about his family? His dad? What if they find out he failed getting into medical school and all of his friends left him because of that? What if—

 

“Seungminnie?” He looks up at Hyunjin. “Hey, it's okay. They're nice people.”

 

“But...but what if they don't like me?” Seungmin can't stand the thought of _that_ , being in the same place with people who think of him as a nuisance. He doesn't want to be in a place people don't want him to be.

 

“They will, and you will like them, too,” Hyunjin says softly. “Seungmin, look at me.” Seungmin swallows and looks up at Hyunjin again, who has a worried but reassuring smile on his face. “It’s okay. Breathe,” he says, holding his hands out to Seungmin. Seungmin grabs them with his trembling ones and squeezes, feeling Hyunjin squeezing his hands back. Seungmin looks at their hands, blinks the tears away and takes a breath in, and then out. The next few inhales and exhales are deeper, and he continues doing so until he can no longer hear the ring in his ears and can no longer feel the tremors on his body, although the fear is still there especially when he looks up at the bench and sees the guys looking back at him and Hyunjin in shocked silence and worry on their faces, with at least half of them off of their seats, as if already ready to help if Hyunjin needs them to.

 

“I’m sorry,” Seungmin looks away.

 

“Hey, it’s okay. Are you feeling better?”

 

“I think so. I’m sorry,” Seungmin frowns, feeling angry at himself now for ruining things and for losing control over his feelings again at times like this. People will surely hate him after this, and it’s all his own fault. “I’m sorry.”

 

“Don’t be. It’s okay now. You’re okay,” Hyunjin assures again.

 

“I,” Seungmin tries to say, the words caught in his throat when he realizes his hands are still in Hyunjin’s. He tries to pull away but Hyunjin only holds onto them tighter. “Hyunjin, I can’t do this,” Seungmin chokes. How is he supposed to meet Hyunjin’s friends now after what just happened? How is he supposed to look at them after what they have just witnessed? “I just can’t. I’m sorry. I’m going home.”

 

“What? No, please stay. It'll be fine,” Hyunjin tries to convince. “You don't have to be embarrassed or scared. They will like you, and I promise you will like them, too.”

 

“Hyunjin…” Hyunjin is pulling him by his hand towards the bench, and Seungmin follows only because he doesn't have any other choice with the tight grip on his hand.

 

“Say hi to them at least? And if you feel uncomfortable still, I'll take you home?” Hyunjin suggests, pleading with puppy eyes. Seungmin's accepting of his tendency not to say no to people, and sometimes he still feels hopeless because of it, even hates it at times. But he's just so used to it, to obey people's wishes, so now he finds himself following Hyunjin again.

 

Seungmin doesn't dare to lift his head up, taking a seat on the bench when Hyunjin gently pushes him down to sit. He stares at his hands under the table, feeling multiple pairs of eyes on him.

 

“Hey, don't crowd him!” someone says. Seungmin feels rather than sees people giving him space.

 

“Get him some water.”

 

“Huh, but we only have candies and coke since we're bunch of unhealthy boys.”

 

Seungmin doesn't mean to, but a small laugh escapes his mouth at that, especially when he remembers Hyunjin buying lots of stocks of candy the other day. He blushes a deeper shade of red when he realizes what just happened and presses his fist on his lips.

 

“Hey he's smiling!”

 

“I made him laugh!”

 

“This is Kim Seungminnie,” Hyunjin introduces, his hands on Seungmin's shoulders. Seungmin quickly waves his hand a no without looking at anyone, gaze glued on his lap.

 

“It’s just Kim Seungmin.”

 

A chorus of “Hi Seungminnie!~” can be heard around the table.

 

“Yah, it's Seungminnie _hyung_ for you,” Hyunjin says to someone.

 

“There's someone younger than me?” Seungmin finally tilts his head up to look at Hyunjin, the same time the person sitting next to Seungmin says “Ohh what I'm still the youngest?” so Seungmin’s attention quickly goes to the boy. “Hello!” the boy greets Seungmin shyly, but with a bright smile showing the braces on his teeth. “My name is Jeongin.”

 

“I’m Jisung!” the guy with the full cheeks and dark brown hair interrupts with his arm raised to get Seungmin to notice him. After that everyone just raises their hands and introduces themselves to Seungmin in some kind of a relay, except everyone's talking over one another so it’s one hell of a noisy chaos.

 

“Slow down!” Hyunjin laughs.

 

“Okay let's introduce ourselves again properly this time,” the silver haired boy says. “I'm—.”

 

“Chan,” Seungmin finishes for him. “It's alright, I got everyone's name,” he says quietly, still feeling shy and nervous at the presence of so many new people he knows nothing of.

 

“Wait, really? You managed to get their names amidst the chaos of them just shouting their names over each other's just now?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Howwwww??” They all question at the same time, the same noisy chaos again filling the air around them. Seungmin leans back in surprise but luckily Hyunjin is standing behind him still so he ends up leaning briefly on Hyunjin’s stomach before murmuring his apologies at the said guy. Hyunjin only smiles and squeezes Seungmin’s shoulders before sitting on the table since the bench are fully taken.

 

“Then what's my name?” asks the guy with hair bleached and dyed blonde. He has an acoustic guitar on his lap and Seungmin wonders if he's good at playing it.

 

“Woojin…” _hyung,_ Hyunjin mouths at him. “Ah. Woojin hyung.”

 

“Hyung, Seungminnie plays the guitar too. _But_ ,” he quickly puts his hand up to stop both Woojin and Seungmin from interrupting. “He’ll play it for us some other time,” he adds, and Seungmin sighs in relief because Woojin honestly looked ready to pass his guitar to Seungmin and ask him to play.

 

“That’s too bad. We should play the guitar together sometimes, Seungminnie,” Woojin grins.

 

“You know what? Alright, everyone hold up,” Hyunjin puts both his hands up now, catching all of their attention on him. “Can you all not call him Seungminnie? Be original and call him something else, please and thanks.”

 

“Eyyyyy,” a round of protest from the other boys. Seungmin looks at them in amusement.

 

“His name is Seungminnie, so of course we’re going to call him that,” another guy— Minho- says.

 

“Yeah, man, you don’t own that name,” Changbin agrees. He has his back to Felix (Seungmin makes a mental note to ask Hyunjin later if Felix is pure Korean or if he came from somewhere else), whom has his arms looped loosely around Changbin’s neck. Seungmin can’t help but to notice how close and comfortable they are with each other.

 

“But I call him that first, so,” Hyunjin shrugs. “Just call him Seungmin or something.”

 

“Why would we call him Something, my god, Hyunjin.” The boys, including Seungmin, laugh hearing Chan’s words. Seungmin feels himself slowly warming up to their presence, and thinks this is actually not as bad as he thought it would be. Hyunjin is right, too. Seungmin is starting to like Hyunjin’s friends because they’re all funny and nice. He secretly hopes they take a liking to him, too.

 

“Why don’t you call him Minnie then?” Jisung smirks. “Then we can call you Mickey.”

 

“Your english name is Mickey?” Seungmin looks up again to ask Hyunjin. Silence falls around them. A smile forms on Hyunjin’s lips before it quickly turns into a grin and finally evolves into a full laughter. Seungmin looks at everyone in surprise when they laugh, too.

 

“I–,” Seungmin tries to find the words to say, but quickly gets interrupted by Chan saying “My child!”

 

“Awww he’s so cute!”

 

“Must protect him!”

 

The confusion melts into realization of them not laughing at him, but at how cute they think he is, apparently. Seungmin doesn’t know how to feel about that, but admittedly glad they weren’t laughing at him. Seungmin wouldn’t be able to deal with the embarrassment, otherwise.

 

“Stop being so cute,” Hyunjin says with a lingering laughter. “And no, my english name is not Mickey. It’s Joseph.”

 

Ok, now Seungmin feels slightly embarrassed because he might’ve missed out on the joke. He apologizes sheepishly, which the boys say _it’s okay_ and _it’s cute, Changbin could never relate. Hey!!_

 

“We call him Hyunjoe sometimes, just because,” Jeongin tells Seungmin.

 

“No, you call me that to _annoy_ me. Don’t teach our pure, kind Seungmin bad stuff, please.”

 

“Thank you for this important information,” Seungmin says anyway. “I’ll know how to annoy him next time.”

 

“Whaaaaat,” Hyunjin splutters. “Why do you want to annoy me?”

 

“Just because?”

 

“That’s right! Okay y’all, Seungminnie is officially one of us now.”

 

Seungmin beams at that, not quite believing they actually like and accept him, and want him to be a part of them that easily. He also can’t believe how much he already likes them all, and want to keep being friends with them. They don’t even bring up Seungmin’s mini panic attack earlier on and Seungmin is honestly really thankful of that. Hyunjin tries to make Seungmin feels comfortable as much as possible, and Seungmin notices the other seven boys are also trying their best to make him feel welcomed.

 

In the end, Seungmin goes home with seven (eight, including Hyunjin) new people in his contacts list, one new noisy group chat on kakaotalk, an invitation to join lunch at the Hwangs’ household the next day and most importantly; a full and happy heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading and leaving kudos ♥ talk to me and let me know what you think! it seriously makes me happy and motivated to write more hehe ♥


	4. Chapter 4

They're not supposed to be at the Hwangs’ before 11am so Seungmin had wanted to sleep a little bit more, but by 7.30 in the morning, Hyunjin’s already ringing the doorbell to their house and waking Seungmin up from his sleep.

 

“Come on, wakey wakey!” Hyunjin pulls on the blanket. Seungmin groans and presses his face deeper onto his pillow. If he was feeling more awake, Seungmin would feel a sense of betrayal that his mom had let his new friend in to his room to wake him up, would feel a sense of embarrassment of Hyunjin seeing him like this, messy and unshowered with sleep still in his eyes, but Seungmin’s so tired and sleepy that he can’t be bothered to care. “If you don’t wake up, I’m going to take a picture of you in your bunny onesie and send it to the group chat.”

 

Seungmin actually screams at that, sitting up on his bed immediately and feeling the sleepiness leaves his mind and body. “Don’t you dare,” he says with raspy voice, glaring at Hyunjin, who looks thoroughly amused by Seungmin’s reaction.

 

“Aww our little bunny Seungminnie is not a morning person, is he now?” Hyunjin giggles teasingly. Seungmin scrambles on the mattress and onto his feet to push Hyunjin out of his room.

 

“Shut up and get out of my room, Hyunjoe,” Seungmin childishly retorts and closes the door. Despite how grumpy he feels from his sleep being interrupted, he can’t deny enjoying the sound of Hyunjin’s laughter ringing in his ears. He notices it’s becoming one of his favorite sounds alarmingly fast, but doesn’t really mind.

 

Seungmin walks to the bathroom with a small smile on his face but another loud shriek follows after when he looks at himself through the reflection of the bathroom mirror, finally seeing how he looks like that morning.

  


 

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Seungmin crosses his arms on his chest, eyebrows pulled together in concentration (and disbelief). “You woke me up so early on a Sunday morning to join a long queue outside a shop that hasn’t even opened yet to get _egg_ _tarts_?”

 

Hyunjin gasps, hand dramatically pressed on his chest in mocked offense. “Not just any egg tarts. _The_ egg tarts.”

 

“...Right,” Seungmin narrows his eyes. “ _The_ egg tarts.”

 

“I swear to god, these are gonna be the _best_ egg tarts you will ever have in your life.”

 

“And if they’re not?” There’s a collective gasp not only from Hyunjin, but the people queuing in front and behind them as well. Seungmin widens his eyes in horror of offending the egg tarts believers and wonders if he can still run and make it out alive.

 

“They are _the_ best egg tarts,” says the middle-aged man queuing behind them.

 

“They will be the best egg tarts you’ll ever have,” then says the boy queuing in front of them. Seungmin blinks and nods dumbly in acknowledgement, deciding to stay silent after, in fear of saying the wrong things and getting mobbed by the egg tarts believers. Hyunjin not so discreetly laughs at the sudden silence from Seungmin, so Seungmin blindly reaches for Hyunjin’s side and pinches him, which only makes him laugh louder after yelping in surprise.

 

  
  


After queuing for half an hour, they finally get to their turn. Hyunjin buys three boxes of medium size egg tarts that come in six pieces for desserts after lunch later, but he lets Seungmin has one first.

 

“It's nicer when it's still warm,” Hyunjin says, passing Seungmin a piece of egg tart. Seungmin has to admit queuing for a long time with a (somehow) empty stomach and having to smell the good scent from the bakery has made his hunger even more apparent, so he gladly takes the egg tart offered to him by Hyunjin.

 

Seungmin takes a bite, not really expecting anything just as long as his hunger is filled, but he's pleasantly surprised at how crispy the egg tart is from the outside and how creamy the custard inside is. He licks the custard stain on his lips and looks back at Hyunjin’s expectant eyes to say: “This is the best egg tart I've ever had.”

 

“Right?” Hyunjin agrees gleefully. “God, that bakery is a blessing. Want to know a fun fact?”

 

Seungmin hums absentmindedly, engrossed in his egg tart, his eyes looking around the place as they walk down the streets. He hasn't been to this part of the town yet so everything is new and intriguing to him. So far, he has spotted a huge bookstore, a 5-storey art and stationery building and also a music store that caught his interest. He definitely has to come back here again to visit all of the stores. A finger swipes at the edge of his mouth, causing Seungmin to look back at Hyunjin again.

 

“Tch,” Hyunjin clicks his tongue but there's a smile on his face. “Such a messy eater.” Seungmin ignores the blush forming on his face and shrugs as nonchalantly as he can manage, stuffing the last of his egg tart into his mouth. “Anyway, as I was saying. Fun fact: Chan hyung and Felix’s parents own the bakery shop.”

 

“Oh, really?” Seungmin raises his eyebrows in surprise at the information of the bakery owner as well as Chan and Felix being siblings. “I didn't know Chan hyung and Felix are siblings.”

 

“Well, more like step brothers? Chan hyung’s mom married Felix’s dad, and then they moved here from Australia a long time ago.”

 

“Australia,” Seungmin repeats after Hyunjin, nodding his head. He doesn't mind learning tidbits of his new friends like this because he does want to know them more. _Maybe I should stop being shy and talk with them more to learn new things about them_ , Seungmin tells himself but realizes he’d spoken that aloud when Hyunjin agrees with a “Yeah, you should! They’re nice people. Well, most of the time.”

 

Seungmin chuckles. “Do you think they like me?”

 

“They obviously do!”

 

“That’s good. I like them, too,” Seungmin mumbles. He really does like them. He doesn’t know for how much longer they’re going to like him, if they’ll still want to be friends with Seungmin once they find out about his past, but a selfish part of him hopes they’ll never have to. Another part of him knows it’s unfair, that sooner or later, he’ll have to tell them somehow because friends tell each other everything, that friendship is based on trust, but at the same time, Seungmin doesn’t know if he’ll ever be ready to open up about his past to them. He doesn’t know if he will ever be ready to face his past again, quite honestly.

 

“Seungminnie~” Seungmin sees a hand waving in front of his face and quickly shakes his thoughts out of his head.

 

“Huh, what, yes?”

 

“You’re spacing out again,” Hyunjin says. “What are you thinking about?”

 

“Um. Nothing?”

 

“Or who?”

 

“No...one?”

 

“Tell me who this person is!” Hyunjin drapes his arm around Seungmin’s shoulders. It’s ridiculous how tactile of a person Hyunjin is, so… _expressive_ with his words, gestures and actions with Seungmin even though they haven’t known each other that well yet, but it’s even more ridiculous Seungmin doesn’t seem to mind it. He’s comfortable with Hyunjin, and Seungmin believes it has something to do with Hyunjin helping him that night when he got lost. He sees Hyunjin as a reliable person- someone he thinks he can count on, like Wonpil. Maybe that is also why Seungmin feels like he’s known Hyunjin for long even if he hasn’t.

 

“I already told you, I wasn’t thinking about anything or anyone.”

 

“Really?” Hyunjin narrows his eyes at Seungmin in feigned distrust. “‘Cause I’d be sad if you’re thinking about someone else when I’m here with you, you know?” Hyunjin juts his lower lip out sadly. Seungmin can’t believe how ridiculous Hyunjin is sometimes. Ridiculously cute.

 

Seungmin pokes a finger on Hyunjin’s cheek and slowly pushes Hyunjin’s face away from his. There’s laughter bubbling up Hyunjin’s throat, bursting out loud when there’s a growling noise coming from Seungmin’s stomach.

 

“Oh no,” Seungmin says, turning pink from embarrassment as he presses his arms over his stomach.

 

“Are you still hungry?” Hyunjin asks rhetorically. “We can find something to eat if you want.”

 

“It’s okay, I’ll just wait for lunch…”

 

“That’s not good! You only had a small bowl of cereal and an egg tart, of course you’d be hungry. And it’s still a few hours away from lunch,” Hyunjin reasons. Seungmin thinks it over, petting his stomach half to comfort it, half to tell it to behave. He’s rewarded with another growl.

 

“Ah, seriously,” Seungmin whines in defeat. Hyunjin laughs, already pulling Seungmin towards the market to look for foods.

  
  


Despite his reluctance to go out that morning, Seungmin is glad he actually did. The morning with Hyunjin is very well spent, moments with him are never dull. Hyunjin knows how to make Seungmin laugh and he is never out of things to say, which Seungmin thinks is kind of amazing especially for someone as quiet and reserved as he is. All in all, Hyunjin has been a really great company. He takes Seungmin to places and shows him where to get certain stuffs Seungmin is looking for, and even shares with him his favorite cafe, which is also his secret hideaway when he wants to spend some time alone from his family and friends.

 

“It's only open after noon, though,” Hyunjin glances at the cafe. “I'll take you there some other time.”

 

“You'll take me with you?” Seungmin asks in surprise, pausing midway from taking a bite on his waffle. “But I thought that's where you go when you want to be alone.”

 

Hyunjin shrugs and pulls Seungmin to walk again after taking a glance at his watch. “I don't mind some company with me.” “Let's go, or we won't make it home on time before the others arrive.”

 

Seungmin doesn't realize they've been out for almost all morning until they arrive at the Hwangs’ house at around quarter past eleven. Seungmin meets Hyunjin’s parents and shyly but politely introduces himself to them. Meeting them, Seungmin notices how Hyunjin looks so much like his mom, how similar Hyunjin’s attitude and way of speech are with his parents’ and can't help but think the Hwangs are a very beautiful and blessed family. Seungmin can tell Hyunjin’s parents are great people and that he is raised well by them.

 

“Just tell them to come up,” Hyunjin says, beckoning Seungmin to follow him. Seungmin bows his head at Hyunjin’s parents again before following him. “Or nevermind, they'll come up on their own,” Hyunjin laughs at the realization and so do his parents.

 

The walk upstairs is a silent one as Hyunjin seems busy replying someone on his phone. Seungmin takes the opportunity to observe the pictures in frames lining up on the walls of the staircase leading to the second floor. There are photos of the family of four and their two pets- a dog and a cat, but most of them are photos of Hyunjin and another guy Seungmin believes is Hyunjin’s brother.

 

“You look different from your brother,” Seungmin comments as he looks at what seems like a recent photo of Hyunjin and his brother. None of their features are the same- not the face, not the body type, not even the height. While Hyunjin is good looking with a boyish charm on him, Hyunjin’s brother is a handsome man with masculine and mature aura. They're the complete opposite of each other physically, but if Seungmin was to choose one similar thing about them, it's their bright, happy smiles.

 

“We get that a lot,” Hyunjin pockets his phone and smiles at Seungmin as they stop to look at the photo together. “Sometimes I look at Chansung hyung and wonder, wow, is this handsome man really my brother, you know?” Hyunjin chuckles. “People always say Chansung hyung resembles my dad a lot and me, my mom.”

 

“You're handsome too,” Seungmin says innocently, offhandedly, receiving a grin from Hyunjin because of the comment. “Beautiful,” he adds, because Hyunjin _is_ beautiful and the pink tint on his cheeks only makes him prettier.

 

“Eyy,” Hyunjin dismisses with a wave of his hand in embarrassment, stomping his way on the last few steps of the stairs. “I'm not.” “My room is this way,” he says, dropping the topic. “I think Kkami is still inside. He always sleeps with me. Are you okay with dogs?”

 

“Dogs?” Seungmin questions, but lets out an unintentional squeal when he sees a small dog running out through the ajar door of a room, its barks tiny but sharp, tail wiggling happily. “He's so cute!” Seungmin lowers himself on the ground, having the curious Kkami immediately running to greet him. “Helloooo,” he pets Kkami softly. Kkami barks a greeting back at Seungmin, making him feel all warm and fluffy and as if he's going to melt into a puddle of goo from how tiny, how cute the dog is. He carefully lifts Kkami up in his hands and hugs him protectively against his chest. “Hyunjinnnnn, Kkami is so cute oh my god,” he lifts his head up to look at Hyunjin, who's  already staring at Seungmin with a dazed expression on. “Hyunjin?”

 

Hyunjin seems to snap from his thoughts with a start, shaking his head and looking at everywhere but at Seungmin. “Oh, yeah. Kkami likes people,” he coughs into his fist and laughs, and then pushes open the door to what Seungmin assumes is Hyunjin’s room. With Kkami still in his arms, Seungmin gets up and follows Hyunjin, giggling when he feels Kkami licking his chin with his tiny tongue. Seungmin settles Kkami down on Hyunjin’s unmade bed as he kneels on the floor and plays with the dog. He glances briefly at Hyunjin adjusting the slats of the blinds to let more sunlight into his room before giving his whole attention back to Kkami nuzzling his nose on Seungmin’s cheek.

 

“Why are you so pretty? So cute? Can I take you home with me?” Seungmin asks Kkami, his fingers combing Kkami’s smooth and silky black and white hairs. Kkami barks at him, which Seungmin would like to believe it’s a yes and smiles to himself.

 

“Do you like puppies?” Hyunjin asks. Seungmin thinks he hears a shutter sound but doesn’t bother to look. He nods at Hyunjin’s question. Seungmin _loves_ dogs and even dreamt of owning one when he was small but he never got any despite wishing for a pet for his birthday every year. He stopped wishing for one when he was 10.

 

Then there’s the sound of the shutter closing and opening again, and this time Seungmin actually whips his head at Hyunjin to find out he has a camera in his hands and is looking at the display monitor with a smile on his face. “Did you just take a picture of me?” Seungmin narrows his eyes.

 

“No,” Hyunjin denies, swivelling his desk chair around so he can sit on it while facing Seungmin. “I took two pictures.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Let’s take another one,” Hyunjin easily ignores, blindly reaching for something on the study table behind him. Seungmin soon finds out it’s a polaroid camera.

 

“If I take a polaroid picture with Kkami, can I have it?”

 

“Sure,” Hyunjin pulls to move the chair closer to where Seungmin and Kkami are. “Kkami-ya, let hyung take a picture of you with Seungmin hyung~”

 

“You address yourself as hyung to Kkami?” Seungmin chuckles.

 

“Well, yeah. I’m too young to be a parent.”

 

“How old is Kkami?”

 

“2 years old now.”

 

“Then in dog years, he’s the hyung, is he not?” Kkami barks in agreement, making Hyunjin laughs.

 

“He’ll always be my baby,” Hyunjin says, looking at the viewfinder of the polaroid camera to get ready to take a picture. He pushes the chair back a little until he’s satisfied with the angle and distance. Kkami is sitting nicely and quietly like the good boy he is, as if it’s a normal thing for Hyunjin to take pictures of him (maybe it is). Seungmin loops his arms on the space around Kkami and gently presses his chin on the top of Kkami’s head, gaining a laugh of approval and a “So cute!” from Hyunjin. Hyunjin takes the picture quickly before Kkami decides to move around. “Okay, one more.”

 

“How much more,” Seungmin drawls the word but is already posing with Kkami. He’s looking at Kkami, and Kkami is looking at him. Seungmin makes a kissy face at Kkami and Hyunjin captures the moment with the press of the shutter button.

 

“I don’t know who’s cuter: Kkami, or you,” Hyunjin says, putting the camera down and waiting for the polaroids to develop.

 

“Kkami of course,” Seungmin decides for him, watching as Kkami jumps off the bed and runs out of the room when Hyunjin’s mom calls for him to get his food. “Ack, look at him run!” Seungmin coos. He finds every little thing about Kkami cute and suddenly feels the urge to get a pet again.

 

“Which one do you want?” Hyunjin shows the two polaroids he’d just taken to Seungmin. “Both of them came out pretty good, and cute.”

 

“What do you mean _which one_? I want both,” Seungmin reaches out for the polaroids but Hyunjin quickly pushes the chair farther behind, hitting the desk and causing a few items to fall.

 

“Whoops,” Hyunjin laughs without remorse, picking up the pens that rolled down onto the floor. “If you can't pick, I'll make the choice,” he says, looking at the polaroids one more time and passing one of them to Seungmin after picking. Seungmin takes a look at it to find Hyunjin had given him the first polaroid he took of Seungmin and Kkami. Indeed, the film came out pretty good, Seungmin thinks.

 

“What are you going to do with the other one anyway?” Seungmin asks curiously, eyeing the film in Hyunjin's hand. Hyunjin takes a double sided tape from his drawer and sticks it at the back of the polaroid.

 

“For my photo wall,” Hyunjin tells him, tilting his chin up to the wall behind Seungmin. Seungmin gasps when he turns his head around and sees the wall beside the door is filled with photos of different sizes. It started with a photo of (even tinier) Kkami in the middle, then the photos are spread out randomly around it. Most of them are photos of Hyunjin and or with his family and friends, but there are also photos of places and landscapes and random things like flowers, guitar and a hand writing something on the pages of a book. It's a mesmerizing sight because there are _so much_ things to look at.

 

“Where do I put this one? Hmm,” Hyunjin is already standing in front of the photo wall, trying to decide where to paste the new polaroid in his hand.

 

“Are you really going to put that up?”

 

“Why not? The others have photos with Kkami, too. See?” He taps a finger on photos that have his friends with Kkami.

 

“Well yeah but those aren't as embarrassing as mine is,” Seungmin mutters, actually embarrassed now of making that face at Kkami and having it taken by Hyunjin to be put up on the wall.

 

“This? Embarrassing?” Hyunjin gestures at the polaroid. “Have you seen—,” Hyunjin scans the wall, perhaps looking for something and then pointing to a photo while laughing. “This?”

 

Seungmin gets up and moves closer to take a better look at the photo. He doesn’t mean to laugh but when he sees the photo is of Jisung sleeping with his mouth wide open and face scribbled with doodles in marker pens, he can’t stop the laughter from escaping his mouth. Seungmin does cover his mouth with his hand to muffle it, but it’s such a futile attempt. Hyunjin on the other hand laughs freely, an arm pressing on his stomach, apparently still finding the photo funny even if he’d probably seen it countless of times before.

 

“Shit,” Hyunjin tries to catch his breath, wiping the tears at the corners of his eyes. “You know what’s funnier? Jisung woke up and walked around school with those drawings on his face. He had no idea!” Hyunjin bursts into another laugh at the memory. Seungmin already feels bad for laughing, and now he also feels bad for Jisung having to walk around school with those drawings on his face but he can’t stop himself from laughing at the image his brain comes up with. It must’ve been a sight to behold.

 

“Stop it, oh my god,” Seungmin hits Hyunjin’s arm lightly and has to take a seat on Hyunjin’s desk chair because his stomach is starting to hurt from laughing. “That was so _mean_.”

 

“It’s all good,” Hyunjin assures, finally picking a spot to paste the new polaroid. “All the eight of us had been a victim of each other’s pranks for at least...I don’t know. Five or six times, maybe,” Hyunjin shrugs, his laughter finally fading, but not after one last chuckle. “So don’t worry. Your polaroid with Kkami isn’t the most embarrassing out of all of these. Heck, it’s not even as embarrassing as you think. It’s cute. Really cute. One of the cutest on this photo wall as of today.”

 

Seungmin clears his throat and fans his face with his hand, suddenly feeling warm. He doesn't know if Hyunjin is being nice or if it's just a casual comment he throws without actually meaning it, but it seriously does things to him whenever Hyunjin calls him cute. His heart flutters at the comment, something akin to hope and happiness blossoming inside. Seungmin doesn't know why he feels this way, doesn't understand the feeling at all. He clears his throat again, refusing to dwell in the question, flicking his eyes to the dry cabinet on top of a table at the corner of the room next to the photo wall. His eyes glint with interest seeing the collection of cameras inside. Just as he is about to ask Hyunjin about it, thumps of urgent footsteps can be heard running up the staircase.

 

“Me first!” Seungmin recognizes Felix’s deep voice. He shares a look with Hyunjin, reflexively standing up from the chair from worry and confusion of what’s happening outside. Both he and Hyunjin whip their head at the door when it’s pushed open, Jisung loudly shouting “No, me!” as he, Felix and Jeongin push each other to prevent them from entering the room first.

 

“Jesus Christ, are y’all bunch of twenty year olds or twelve?” Minho shouts from outside the room, unable to get inside with the commotion at the door.

 

“Excuse me, I'm nineteen!” Jeongin says, pushing Jisung’s face away with his hand. He beams when he sees Seungmin, who falters a step behind at his “Hyung! Hi! Let me love you!”

 

At this point, Hyunjin starts laughing again, like he catches on what's going on while Seungmin’s left to wonder on his own. Seungmin doesn't know when or how Chan manages to get inside (by the gasps and how Felix, Jisung and Jeongin stumble in surprise to the ground, they probably didn't know either), but he has this _grin_ on his face when he approaches Seungmin before he literally leaps onto him.

 

Seungmin catches him with an “Oof”, arms awkwardly hovering behind Chan’s back.

 

“Hey, no fair!” Felix protests, trying to untangle himself from Jisung and Jeongin, with the help from Changbin. Minho looks done with them, eyes rolling in judgement and a foot kicking them as he walk past the door and into the room. Woojin follows closely behind, not even fazed by the human pile on the floor as he walks towards Seungmin and Chan.

 

“What's going o—,” Seungmin’s question is cut off by Chan squishing and eagerly swaying him from side to side.

 

“Our cute bunny!” Chan says. “Please, let me adopt you my child.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Hello,” Woojin greets Seungmin with a ruffle of his hand on Seungmin’s hair. Seungmin barely gets to register what the actual _hell_ is going on because now Felix is already pushing Chan away and taking his spot, locking his arms around Seungmin while Jeongin manages to do the same from Seungmin’s other side, and Jisung…

 

Seungmin watches in horror when Jisung bolts towards them.

 

“No, no, no—”

 

There are bouts of shouting and laughter, and suddenly Seungmin is already lying on his back on the floor with Jisung on top of him and Felix and Jeongin still by his sides. Seungmin feels a dull pain somewhere but the only thing that comes out of his mouth once the confusion of being knocked down to the ground is cleared, is his laughter.

 

“This is only your second meeting with Seungmin and you're already trying to kill him?” Seungmin hears Changbin says, amusement in his voice.

 

“Hyung, he tried to kill us first, remember?” Felix retorts. Seungmin doesn't understand what he's talking about but doesn't get to ask about it either when Changbin agrees with a dry “You’re right,” and then proceeds to lean down on his stomach on Jisung’s back.

 

“Oh my god, get off of me! You're so heavy!” Jisung protests.

 

“Hey, _I'm_ the one _dying_ here!” Seungmin finally shouts but the fools only laugh at him. Chan then lies down on top of Jeongin, Minho on top of Felix and Woojin on top of Chan, creating another human pile on the floor. “Can't breathe!” Seungmin says, feeling the heavy weight on him but he can't get rid of the grin on his face at the same time, and Hyunjin? Hyunjin is taking a picture of them with his camera, and then another with him in the picture as well.

 

When they finally do release and get off of Seungmin ten seconds after snapping the pictures, when he can finally breathe properly again, when they share a laugh and Seungmin has to spend a good five minutes to assure them that he's fine, _don't worry, no broken bones anywhere_ , he feels impossibly content, like he's found what he's been missing in his life.

 

The thought both excites and scares him at the same time, because that means he has something to lose now. But Seungmin thinks that's okay, too, because that also means now he has something worth fighting for. He wouldn't trade it for the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have a great day, lovelies ♥ thank you for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for any typos/errors!

Seungmin only goes back home at around 7 in the evening, just in time for dinner. He greets Wonpil and their mom cheerfully as he takes a seat on his chair on the dining table, gaining an amused look from them.

 

“So, how was today?” Wonpil asks conversationally, picking the fish meat and carefully removing the small bones before putting it on Seungmin’s bowl of rice.

 

“It was fun,” Seungmin starts. “They're all so nice but so noisy but sooo funny. The lunch was really great! Hyunjin’s parents are such good cooks.”

 

“Yeah? Did you thank them for the foods and for inviting you over?” His mom smiles.

 

“Of course! We should invite them over sometimes, too, mom,” Seungmin suggests. He eats the food Wonpil is feeding to him because Seungmin hasn't touched his food yet and doesn’t seem like he’s going to, looking more interested to talk about his day.

 

“Yeah, we should.”

 

“Is it okay if they bring Kkami over, too?”

 

“Who's Kkami?” Wonpil asks.

 

“Hyunjin’s dog,” Seungmin remembers the polaroid he took with Kkami and fishes it out of his jeans pocket to show to Wonpil. “He's soooo tiny and cute.” Wonpil takes the picture from Seungmin and smiles, and then passes it to their mom, whom smiles as well after looking at it. “He's a good boy. He won't bite our shoes or scratch the furniture or anything.”

 

“Sure, sweetie,” their mom slides the photo back to him, hand on his shoulder. “I'd love to meet the Hwangs and Kkami, too.”

 

“Yeah?” Seungmin grins. “Great! I can help you cook.”

 

“You only know how to fry eggs though.”

 

Seungmin blushes at his brother’s comment because Wonpil is right. “We'll then, I'll cook them fried eggs…” They both laugh at him. Seungmin pouts but then grins again as he goes on telling his family about his new friends, how Jeongin is on his last year of high school but the rest of them are surprisingly attending or will attend the same college as Seungmin’s, how Chan is one of the eldest but he acts like he's no older than the maknae’s age. He tells them about his friends with happiness glinting in his eyes, with so much adoration in the way he speaks about them that both Wonpil and their mom stop eating to just listen to their maknae chatting happily.

 

Seungmin doesn't see it, so engrossed in his talk, but Wonpil reaches his hand for their mom’s on the table and squeezes her hand, both of them fascinated and joyful that Seungmin could be so happy and lively. Later, when his mom hugs Seungmin tight and lingers in the embrace a little longer, when she presses a kiss on his forehead, Seungmin doesn't question it either. Instead, he hugs her back, and then hugs Wonpil before excusing himself to go shower.

  
  


 

Seungmin only remembers about his phone when he’s getting ready for sleep and finds it under the pillow, which is the last place he’d put it on the night before. He mentally scolds himself for having the tendency to forget his phone when going out and is seriously considering putting alarm for every hour just so he will remember where his phone is.

 

“Maybe I should,” he shrugs, noticing the blinking red light that indicates his phone’s battery is low. He plugs the charger on and sees the notifications on his screen when it lights up. He's shocked to see the number of new messages because he's still not used to receiving so many of them. Of course, it's from none other than the only group chat Seungmin has on his kakaotalk app. Even now at this hour, some of them are still chatting with each other. Seungmin goes to the last messages he read last night, smiling and even laughing at some of their talks. He freezes however when he comes across a picture of someone sleeping, the hoodie with the bunny ears covering his head down to his eyes. Seungmin knows that onesie, knows that it's him even if only half of his face could be seen in that picture.

 

“Hyunjin!” Seungmin drops down on the mattress and thrashes his legs, kicking his pillows and blanket off to the floor. He sits back up again after releasing his embarrassment, quickly taking a screenshot of Hyunjin’s offensive crime to send it to him privately.

 

[screenshot]

How could you?

 

**hhj203**

Lol I was wondering when you're gonna notice ;p

 

The audacity! Giving a wink emoji with a tongue sticking out without any sense of guilt?? Seungmin quickly types a reply.

 

That's not very nice!

I woke up like you told me to

But you still sent the picture to them

 

**hhj203**

Aww it’s a cute picture though!

Too cute not to share

 

D:<

 

**hhj203**

Lol what is that

Are you mad at me?

Why does it look cute tho?

 

“I can't believe this guy,” Seungmin huffs incredulously. He closes the chat window and goes back to read the messages over at the group chat instead. Seungmin blushes at their talks after Hyunjin sent them the picture of Seungmin. There are bunch of _Omg_ s and _so cute!!!_ as well as keyboard smashes and keyboard smashes in Roman alphabets, and also Chan’s “maternal instinct intensifies!!” followed by stickers of characters with hearts in their eyes.

 

“Ahh. Now I get it,” Seungmin says as something clicks in his head, remembering Felix’s “He tried to kill us first” comment to Changbin earlier that day. So they were referring to this, acting _weird ‘_ cause of the picture? “They're so ridiculous,” Seungmin shakes his head, but still thinks fondly of them. He can't believe how lucky he is to find them, nor can he believe how they all just click together and grow close in a short span of time despite Seungmin feeling scared of them when they met for the first time. He’s really, really grateful for this chance, if he's being honest about it. Moving here is not such a bad idea after all.

 

Seungmin ignores and dismisses the new notifications coming in because he wanted to finish reading all the messages in the group chat first. Now, he's come to the part where everyone is sharing all the photos they took today at the Hwangs’ and Seungmin saves all of them, even the ones that don't have him in it.

 

“Not creepy at all, Kim Seungmin,” he snorts to himself. But hey, nothing wrong with saving pictures of his friends, right? Besides, he wants to show them to his mom and Wonpil later, so it's a good enough excuse, honestly. Not creepy at all.

 

Minho, Jisung and Felix are still seen chatting about...dance cover videos? Seungmin has no idea. He briefly wonders if it's okay to interrupt their talks to say good night, fingers hesitantly hovering over his keypad. He types in the message slowly, and then spends another few minutes hovering his thumb over the send button.

 

“Ah whatever,” Seungmin bites his lower lip and presses send.

 

Okay. Now there's no turning back.

 

I just found my phone and just saw your messages ^^;

thank you all for today. I had a really great time.

 

**daramjisung**

!!!! The qt has spoken!!

 

**FelixLee**

Seungminnie!! Hi!!

Aww glad to hear that! We had a great time with you too

 

**Hohohominho**

Lol you forgot where you put your phone or?

Can you be any cuter hahah

We should hang out again soon!!

 

Seungmin smiles reading their texts, already typing a good night message when another text comes through. It's from Hyunjin.

 

**hhj203**

Kim Seungmin!!

So you're still awake

And blatantly ignoring my texts I see

 

**daramjisung**

Ignoring Hyunjin’s texts?? Kim Seungmin: a qt and an intellectual

Pls be my president

 

**FelixLee**

HAHAHAH

 

**Hohohominho**

Lol yeah if Hyunjin is bothering you just ignore him

We do that too when it gets too much

 

**hhj203**

#fAkefriends much

 

I misplace my phone a lot and I don't use it much, so…

Thanks! I hope we can hang out soon too

 

**hhj203**

KIM SEUNGMINNIE

 

Good night all! I'm going to sleep first. Take care!

 

Seungmin types and sends the greeting hastily so he can open his chat window with Hyunjin. He waits for a bit just in case they have anything more to say to him, and indeed they do, mostly just a goodnight greeting. He's surprised it's not only Felix, Minho and Jisung who text back, but also the other remaining boys whom Seungmin originally thought were inactive or busy or already asleep. He sends one last sticker and closes the chat to open the chat room with Hyunjin.

 

**hhj203**

Omg wait are you really mad at me?

I’M SO SORRY

Please don't be mad

It was a cute picture Seungminnie istg!

You don't have to be embarrassed

I know you're new in the group chat but we share embarrassing photos of each other there all the time

NOT THAT YOUR PIC IS EMBARRASSING

It's cute. Really cute

Oh wait are you asleep? :x

Ok ok if you are i’m sorry i’m spamming

But good night!!

 

Seungmin reads the texts in amusement, not knowing what to reply. He doesn't have to, though, because Hyunjin is already sending him another text.

 

**hhj203**

T___T

Seungminnie I'm really sorry T___T

Please don't be mad at me

 

Lol Hyunjin

It's okay. I'm not mad anymore

 

**hhj203**

Oh thank goodness ahkdjkdj

But you were?

 

Just a little bit

 

**hhj203**

T~T I'm sorry, I was wrong

Don't ignore me again T~T

I can't stand the thought of our cutie Seungminnie being mad at me T~T

It's scarier than the scariest movie and sadder than the saddest story T~T

 

Seungmin has to chuckle at how dramatic Hyunjin is but can't deny how cute he is at the same time. He nibbles on his lower lip as he types a reply.

 

Silly. I wasn’t ignoring you! Lol

You're so cute Hyunjin ^o^

 

**hhj203**

O___O

 

I wasn't mad I guess

Just embarrassed

But at least the picture is better than Jisung’s?

 

**hhj203**

Lolol waaaaaay better

 

Omg please don't tell Jisung I said that?

 

**hhj203**

Your secret is safe with me

;) ;) ;)

 

Seungmin grabs the pillows and blanket on the floor and makes himself comfortable on the bed, pulling the charger off and turning the lights off. Yawning as he feels the exhaustion crashing on him, he looks at his phone to see Hyunjin's sent another text to him.

 

**hhj203**

Are you going to sleep?

 

Yeah. I’m so sleepy already

 

**hhj203**

Then go to sleep :)

 

Thanks for today Jinnie

I mean it when I said I had a great time

Thanks for inviting me to hang out with your friends

 

**hhj203**

You mean your friends too!

You're welcome Seungminnie!

Thanks for wanting to hang out with us lame boys too

I mean I'm the cool boy, they're the lame ones hahah

 

Not lame at all

Cooler than I will ever be

 

**hhj203**

Not true

You're cute though, do you know how powerful that is?

Like, powerful enough to sweep us all off our feet

 

Kkk you are so silly

I know you’re just being nice

But thank you :)

 

**hhj203**

I am being honest! ;p

 

Seungmin smiles sleepily at the screen, yawning again and closing his eyes as he thinks of what to reply, but dozes off as sleep takes over him quickly and completely misses out on Hyunjin’s next text that says:

 

**hhj203**

Goodnight! Sweet dreams <3

 

  
  


 

For someone who had a great mood and time the day before, waking up the next morning feeling like shit is surprising, but not unexpected. This has happened quite a lot of times before for Seungmin to know the feeling isn't there just because it's still too early in the morning, but rather it's something that will drag all of him down for at least half of the day. Seungmin dreads just at the thought of it and sinks even more on his bed, pulling the blanket above his head and willing himself to go back to sleep.

 

When Seungmin wakes up again, nothing changes for the better. The feeling is still there, pressing against his heart and being, head heavy with thoughts and exhaustion lingering in his wake even though he's slept–his gaze flits to the digital clock– for quite a while now.

 

Seungmin turns away and gives his back to the door when someone knocks on it, pressing his cheek on the pillow and closing his eyes.

 

“Hey, bud?” It's Wonpil’s voice. Seungmin frowns but doesn't budge from his position. He does groan however when Wonpil moves closer and leans on the bed, his weight dipping on the mattress behind Seungmin, and his chin resting on Seungmin’s shoulder as he slings an arm around Seungmin’s waist. “I know you're awake,” he says softly.

 

“I'm not,” Seungmin mutters, adding a half-hearted “Go away.”

 

“I can't believe,” Wonpil then says with an incredulous tone that Seungmin has to peek an eye open to see. “I'm having my rare day off today to spend it with my favorite brother so we can bond, but what do I get? Him wanting me to go away and leave him alone,” he says with feigned hurt. Seungmin rolls his eyes and then closes them again, somehow determined to ignore Wonpil and stay in bed even though he knows it's probably not good for him. “Hey, you okay?” Wonpil’s voice softens again, lightly shaking Seungmin’s shoulder.

 

“No,” Seungmin admits, because he’s not. He’s figured he is having _one of those days_ again and has no choice but to wait for it to go away. It may take hours, or the whole day, and even stretches on to the next few days. God, Seungmin hopes it won’t last for _that_ long.

 

“What is it? Talk to me.”

 

Seungmin hesitates at first, but eventually starts blurting all these things running in his mind to Wonpil; how college is starting soon and he's not ready yet, how he can't choose his classes, how his friends are nice people but Seungmin isn't sure if he's worthy of them, how sometimes he feels like he’ll be okay and that he’ll be able to overcome anything that comes his way but then other times, he feels like he's not strong enough to get through the day. He tells Wonpil how Hyunjin has a perfect family and _why can't we be like them, hyung?_

 

“Every family is different and has their own flaw, and that's okay, Seungmin-ah,” Wonpil says.

 

“But we’re incomplete, hyung. Why do we have to be so different from everyone else?”

 

Wonpil turns quiet at that, mind working on finding the right words to say. Seungmin waits until his brother breaks the silence again with a “Being different from everyone else is not necessarily a bad thing, you know? Being different doesn't mean we can’t be happy. In fact, in our case, this difference- this _change_ makes us a lot better. It’s necessary so we can be happier.”

 

It’s Seungmin’s turn to turn quiet. “Are you happy, hyung?”

 

“I'm happier now that I get to be close with you and mom again,” Wonpil smiles. “I'm happier that I let– dad go. I hope someday you can do the same, too, Seungmin-ah. Don't let what he said to you hurt you anymore. I know it's not easy but you'll get there eventually. Mom and I will always be here for you.”

 

Seungmin feels the hot tears gathering in his eyes, body trembling from trying to hold the sobs in but when Wonpil tightens his arms around Seungmin and holds him close, Seungmin lets it all go and cries his heart out.

  
  


 

 

Seungmin feels better after crying, his mood lifted up a little bit but turns visibly more clingy to Wonpil as well, whom doesn't mind it a tiny bit in the first place. Their mom had left so early in the morning to take care of some things in town so it's only Wonpil and Seungmin left at home. Wonpil had cooked them a simple lunch when they decided to watch movies together since it has been a while since their last movie marathon.

 

They huddled together on the couch in the TV room, empty tub of ice cream left on the coffee table. Seungmin is so comfortable in his position that he whines loudly when they hear the doorbell rings.

 

“I’ll get it,” Wonpil says, craning his neck at the hallway as if he can see who the visitor is from there. Seungmin whines again and pulls Wonpil closer to himself, not wanting to move and let his brother go.

 

“Don’t open it. Let’s just pretend we’re not home.”

 

“Yah, what if it’s mom? Maybe she forgot her keys.” Seungmin pouts but when the bell rings again, he reluctantly lets Wonpil go. “I’ll be right back,” Wonpil chuckles and ruffles Seungmin’s hair before standing up to leave and get the door. Seungmin slides down on his side on where Wonpil had been sitting, blinking his eyes at the movie playing on the TV. It’s an animation called The Book of Life and both Seungmin and Wonpil had seen it a lot of times before but it still remains their favorite go-to movie up to this day.

 

“Is it mom?” Seungmin asks without looking back when he hears Wonpil entering the room again. Instead of getting an answer from Wonpil, he gets something furry laid in front of his eyes, which he soon realizes is Kkami. “Kkami-ya!” Seungmin beams instantly, sitting up straight and pulling Kkami into his hug. Seungmin turns around to see Hyunjin standing behind the couch with a smile on his face and a wave of his hand at Seungmin. “Hyunjin, what are you doing here?” he asks, inviting Hyunjin to sit down with a pat of his hand on the space next to him. Hyunjin shrugs and shoves his hands into the pockets of his hoodie before taking a seat.

 

“I was taking Kkami out for a walk and then my mom asked us to deliver something for your mom when we got back home just now,” Hyunjin explains.

 

“Oh,” Seungmin nods his head, hand busy stroking Kkami who is now lying comfortably on Seungmin’s lap. “Deliver what? Kkami?” he asks jokingly, giggling when Kkami barks back at him.

 

“No, no. Not my Kkami,” Hyunjin giggles too, hand reaching for Kkami as if to take him back into his hands but Seungmin is quick to swat his hand away from touching Kkami. “But I guess I can let you dogsit him for like an hour maybe, if you want?”

 

Seungmin's eyes light up again at that, grinning at Hyunjin. “Really?” Seungmin pretends he doesn't see Hyunjin searching at his face and how his eyes soften when he finds the answer.

 

Hyunjin doesn't say anything more than a “Yeah…” Seungmin shifts to carry Kkami in his arm and Kkami immediately leans his chin on the crook of his forearm, his eyes blinking sleepily.

 

“Awww, look at him,” Seungmin nuzzles his nose on the top of Kkami’s head. “Does he get sleepy after a walk?”

 

“Always. He’ll probably cuddle and sleep in the next hour.”

 

“That's okay. He can sleep in my arm the whole time, then,” he smiles up at Hyunjin, only to find him already smiling at him and Kkami.

 

“Okay. I'll pick him up in an hour or so.”

 

“You're not staying?”

 

Hyunjin shakes his head. “It's my turn to help my mom with dinner preparation today.”

 

“You can cook?”

 

“A little I guess? Like, just enough for survival,” he snorts at his own words.

 

“Seungmin can only cook fried eggs,” Wonpil says. Both Seungmin and Hyunjin turn their heads around at Wonpil leaning on his side against the door frame. “He could've cooked you some for dinner if you’d stayed,” he teases.

 

“Hyung,” Seungmin pouts in embarrassment. Hyunjin laughs with mirth in the crinkles of his eyes, the sound and sight a little breathtaking for Seungmin that it only makes him blush even more.

 

“You can cook me some next time then,” Hyunjin says as he gets up from the couch to leave. Seungmin presses his lips into a thin line, trying not to show the disappointment of Hyunjin leaving so soon too much. He likes having Hyunjin as company and talking with him, and it's a pity they don't get to spend some more time together that day. “I'll come back in an hour, yeah?”

 

“Okay,” Seungmin affirms. Hyunjin excuses himself and Seungmin watches him leave before leaning his back against the couch and softly nuzzling his nose on Kkami again, the smell of his shampoo and his presence itself both calming and comforting to Seungmin. Wonpil joins him on the couch not long after.

 

“I can't believe he trusts his dog to you,” Wonpil comments.

 

“What's that supposed to mean?” Seungmin pouts again.

 

“I didn't mean it in a bad way,” Wonpil chuckles and ruffles Seungmin’s hair. “I think it's just nice that he trusts you like that. I think it would be nice if you learn to trust him, too. He's a good kid with good intentions, isn't he?”

 

“Mhmm,” Seungmin simply agrees with a hum. Seungmin doesn't tell Wonpil but after that night when he got lost and Hyunjin had approached Seungmin to offer his help, Seungmin had begun to learn to trust Hyunjin. He didn't have much choice at that time, but when Hyunjin had somehow led him home (although by chance), Seungmin’s trust in that guy solidified from there. Hyunjin had also introduced him to good people and took him out to show around the new place, has made Seungmin feel safe and welcomed that it's hard not to think of Hyunjin as a reliable person.

 

When Hyunjin comes back 15 minutes late than the promised time to fetch Kkami, hence allowing Seungmin to have more time with his dog, Seungmin can't help but be more thankful to his new friend for being so kind and sweet and understanding. When Hyunjin says his goodbye and waves Kkami’s paw at Seungmin, when Hyunjin presses kisses on Kkami’s head and telling him “I missed you” in voice laced with heavy aegyo, Seungmin thinks it’s okay to put his trust in Hyunjin.

 

That day and at that moment, Seungmin allows himself to like Hyunjin more than he already has.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you, as always <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have a great weekend, lovelies ♥

Tuesday morning, Seungmin wakes up early and can't seem to go back to sleep so he walks downstairs to get his cereals noticing how unusually hungry he is. He finds Wonpil in the kitchen, getting ready to leave for his morning shift, a toast in his mouth.

 

“Morning hyung,” Seungmin greets sleepily, opening the fridge to get the milk out. Wonpil moves closer to pet Seungmin’s head while grabbing his backpack on the counter.

 

“Morning,” he greets back, snatching the milk from Seungmin’s hand, opening the lid and downing it straight from the bottle. Seungmin tsks in disapproval but doesn't make a move to stop his brother. He closes the fridge and moves to get the box of cereal from one of the cupboards. “I have to go now or else I'll be really late,” Wonpil gasps when he takes a look at his watch. “Going now!” Wonpil announces, rushing out of the kitchen.

 

“Okay. Take care!” Seungmin reminds him, pouring the cereals into his bowl and then the milk comes after.

 

“Hey,” Wonpil appears at the door of the kitchen again, surprising and stopping Seungmin immediately. “Don't forget what we talked about yesterday. Register your classes! It’ll be fine whatever you choose.”

 

“Oh,” Seungmin looks away, pretending to be occupied getting the spoon from the drawers. “Yeah, okay. I will…”

 

“Good. Update me again later. I’m going for real now. Bye! Love you!”

 

“Eww. Love you too.” And then Wonpil is gone, the last thing Seungmin heard is the front door closing shut. Now there's only the sound of the metal spoon hitting the glass bowl as he swirls the cereals in the milk, his thoughts spinning along to the action. College is starting in two weeks time so he really needs to register his classes so they can arrange his timetable. He can't afford to put it off anymore. Seungmin sighs and eats his breakfast quietly.

 

“Oh, you're up early today,” his mom’s voice breaks the silence in the kitchen when she enters it, all dressed up for the day, her hair still damp from the shower.

 

“Good morning,” Seungmin smiles. “I couldn't go back to sleep and was feeling a little hungry so I decided to find something to eat.”

 

“Do you want me to cook you something?” she asks, eyes scanning the insides of the fridge. “There's some leftovers from dinner last night. Did your brother leave already?”

 

“It's okay, I'm not so hungry anymore,” Seungmin tells her. “He left just a couple of minutes ago.”

 

“Alright then. Ahh, right,” she takes out a container filled with kimchi. “I should move this to a different container and return it to the Hwangs. Hmm, what should I fill the container with?”

 

“How about your famous chicken curry?” Seungmin suggests. His stomach growls just at the thoughts of the dish. “I'd love to have some today,” he confesses.

 

“Chicken curry it is,” she agrees and laughs, the sound momentarily makes Seungmin forgets his problems. He smiles and finishes his cereals.  
  
  


 

 

It's a little past 11 o'clock when Seungmin heads to the Hwangs’ residence with his mom to return their container filled with chicken curry as suggested by Seungmin, as a thank you gesture for giving them the kimchi. The moms meet and exchange pleasantries, and Seungmin joins in their talks (or rather, he's just sitting there in the kitchen listening to them talk like old friends who have known each other for long even though they have just met that day) for a few minutes before Mrs. Hwang shoos him to go find Hyunjin upstairs so the ladies could talk to themselves while getting lunch ready.

 

He didn't text Hyunjin earlier to tell him they were coming over so Seungmin is a little unsure Hyunjin knows Seungmin and his mother are at their house. He contemplates on texting him before he goes upstairs to Hyunjin’s room but then realizes he stupidly forgot to bring his phone with him, _again_.

 

“What a bad habit,” Seungmin shakes his head at himself. He can hear music from behind the door to Hyunjin’s room so at least he knows Hyunjin is up. When he knocks on the door however, there is no response. “Hyunjin? It's Seungmin. Can I come in?” he tries again and waits for a reply. Still getting no answer, Seungmin decides to push the door open anyway, albeit a little carefully and slowly, to poke his head in. “Hyunjin?”

 

It's not Hyunjin who greets him, but instead it's Kkami, getting down from the bed and wagging his tail as he looks up at Seungmin with a happy bark. “Aww hello!” Seungmin pushes the door more and sits down on his heels to greet Kkami. He briefly looks around the room and notices Hyunjin is not inside before taking Kkami into his arms. “Where's Hyunjinnie?” he asks Kkami but only gets a lick on his cheek from him.

 

Seungmin doesn't hear it at first especially with the soft music playing in the room but his ears eventually catch the sound of the water running from the tap coming from the bathroom. He shrugs and waits, walking into the room as his fingers keep on rubbing Kkami’s head. He takes a look at Hyunjin’s photo wall again, taking his time to observe the photos with more concentration than last Sunday now that he isn’t occupied with eight other boys teasing him or wanting his attention and asking random questions.

 

Seungmin is no expert in photography, but most of the photos Hyunjin took are pretty and seemingly have a story of their own. He tilts his head at a certain photo of a kid blowing bubbles, his other friends chasing and trying to pop them off, carefree smile on their faces with the sun setting behind them creating a perfect lens flare. Seungmin looks at the photo and feels at peace, a strange wave of nostalgia hitting him. It reminds him of the happier times uninterrupted by worries, burdens and responsibilities, the days he longs to go back to at times.

 

Seungmin turns around when the bathroom door creaks open, his gaze immediately meeting with Hyunjin’s, whose eyes widen in surprise seeing him there. He's wearing a track pants and a simple plain white tshirt that looks way too big on him that Seungmin finds it adorable. “Hi,” Seungmin greets sheepishly. Hyunjin grins and continues drying his hair with a towel, eyes drifting to Kkami nestled comfortably in Seungmin’s arms.

 

“Here so early to kidnap Kkami?”

 

Seungmin snorts. “If I wanted to kidnap him, I'd be gone with him by now,” he makes a point. Hyunjin laughs. “Sorry I invited myself in. I knocked but you were in the bathroom.”

 

“It's fine,” Hyunjin assures, throwing his wet towel on his bed. Seungmin looks over in distaste, letting Kkami down on the floor. “If you're not here to kidnap Kkami, then what brought you here?”

 

Seungmin picks up the towel from the bed and hangs it on the desk chair. “My mom wanted to meet your mom and return something for giving us the kimchi yesterday,” Seungmin starts, moving to Hyunjin’s bed to make the bed up. “They sent me up here to get you for lunch. They’re still talking downstairs I think.” “What?” Seungmin asks when he looks at Hyunjin giving him an unreadable grin.

 

“Nothing~” Hyunjin sing-songs, draping his arm around Seungmin’s shoulders. From this proximity, Seungmin can smell the intriguing scent of flowery fabric softener mixed with the fresh aquatic scent of Hyunjin’s...shampoo? Cologne? Whatever it is, it’s a _really_ good smell, Seungmin thinks. It reminds him of the oceans. “I thought you came here to see me. I'm a little sad that's not the case.”

 

“Well. I have no reason to see you, honestly…”

 

“Ouch. A stab right through the heart,” Hyunjin feigns hurt, hand grasping the shirt above where his heart is and wrinkling the fabric in the process. “You can come see me without any reason, though.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Why not?” Hyunjin asks back, shouting a “Coming!” when his mom calls for them from downstairs. “We can watch movies or you can teach me how to play the guitar! Or you can pose for me and I'll take pictures of you,” Hyunjin does that thing with his eye again, aiming for a wink and failing badly. Seungmin stares.

 

“I have something to tell you,” Seungmin says and before Hyunjin can ask what it is, he adds “You suck at winking.” and then runs away laughing, from Hyunjin spluttering an incredulous huff at him.

  
  
  


 

Lunch is filled with talks to get to know each other better, random praises thrown here and there complimenting the foods cooked by the moms and Seungmin and Hyunjin playfully kicking each other’s foot under the table. Through the conversation, Seungmin finds out that the Hwangs are a family of photographers- from the parents to their eldest son and now Hyunjin is pursuing to become one, too. Seungmin finds it fascinating. No wonder the house is filled with _so_ many photos decorating a room, or hung on the walls. All of them are taken beautifully with a touch of years of experiences that Seungmin had thought they were photographed by professionals. Well, now he knows the professionals are the family themselves.

 

They don’t talk about Seungmin’s family much, the conversations more focused on the Hwangs, not because the Hwangs initiated it, but because Seungmin’s mom always seems to find a way to direct the topics back to them. Seungmin knows it’s his mom’s way of protecting him from getting triggered if they talk about their lives and their past, and the Hwangs don’t seem to mind it either, as if understanding why and not wanting to prod in too much out of respect. Seungmin feels thankful about it, but also a little bad.

 

“College is starting in two weeks. Have you registered your classes?” Mrs. Hwang throws a pointed look at Hyunjin. “Knowing you, you probably procrastinated again, right?” Even though it’s directed to Hyunjin, Seungmin feels reprimanded too and hangs his head in shame, quietly eating his foods.

 

“I registered last week!”

 

“Yeap. You procrastinated, as expected.” They laugh at Hyunjin when he makes a whiny noise, feeling slightly affronted, much to Seungmin’s amusement.

 

“What classes did you register for?” Seungmin asks.

 

“Photography, mostly.” _Of course_ , Seungmin mentally snorted at himself for asking a dumb question. Seungmin regrets asking when Hyunjin returns the question back to him. He cowers under the curious gaze on him and fidgets slightly in his seat, avoiding their eyes as he mumbles his answer. “I don’t know yet. Something to do with pharmaceutical sciences, I think.”

 

“Pharmaceutical?” Hyunjin asks in wonder, sounding surprised at the information. “Didn’t know you were into that kind of stuff. It’s like I keep learning something new about you everyday.”

 

“Umm, yeah,” Seungmin says. He glances at his mom and swallows the lump down his throat when he sees the look on her face. He can’t be sure if it’s disappointment or pity, but it makes his stomach feels queasy all the same. Seungmin nervously downs his water and avoids their eyes again.

 

“Anyway,” Hyunjin breaks the sudden strange silence. “I also applied for cinematography class, mom,” Hyunjin informs his mom. She hums and swallows her drink before saying, “That’s good. You’ve always wanted to learn more about cinematography.”

 

And just like that, the conversation is diverted away from Seungmin again. He lets out a silent breath of relief and finishes his meal.

  
  
  


 

The moms kicked the boys out after lunch so now they’re just lounging in the TV room, with Hyunjin absently clicking the remote control to look for good channel to watch while Seungmin is more interested to look around the room. There’s a huge photo of the family hung on one of the walls of the room that includes a woman Seungmin’s never seen before and a baby in her arms. Seungmin smiles.

 

“Is that your niece? Or nephew?” he asks.

 

“That’s my nephew Chanjin when he was smaller. Now, he’s around this big,” Hyunjin says, gesturing the estimated height of a toddler with his hand. “He’s really super cute and active. He’ll ask you to chase him around,” Hyunjin chuckles. “It’s fun at first but then you get tired. Old age and all.”

 

“...Hyunjin, you’re twenty years old, not fifty.”

 

“Hey, twenty year olds get tired too, okay?” Hyunjin defends himself jokingly. He finally settles on a channel playing an old Harry Potter film and sinks deeper on the fluffy, comfortable cushion behind him. Seungmin relaxes against the cushion too and sighs in content. He feels tired and sleepy suddenly, having slept late the night before and waking up early that morning. Having a full stomach from lunch only fuels his sleepiness even more.

 

“Do you want to see more pictures of my nephew?” Hyunjin asks but is already taking out his phone without waiting for Seungmin’s answer.

 

“Yeah,” Seungmin mumbles, eyes lazily drifting to the phone in Hyunjin’s hand. He watches Hyunjin taps his thumb on the screen to get to the gallery. Seungmin’s lips curl into a smile when he notices Hyunjin’s nephew has a special folder of his own in Hyunjin’s phone that had been named to “My Heart”. _Cute._

 

“This was few days after he was born,” Hyunjin shows him a picture of a newborn, so, so tiny and skin still red, his tiny hand gripping on someone's thumb (which he later finds out is Hyunjin’s). Seungmin smiles wider at how cute Hyunjin’s nephew is, feeling his heart melt just at the picture of him. Hyunjin keeps on swiping right to show Seungmin the pictures of Chanjin, visibly progressing from his infant state all the way to his age now, patiently hearing to Hyunjin’s descriptions or memories of each photo. Seungmin especially loves the series of pictures of Hyunjin pressing his thumb on Chanjin’s palm and having his nephew gripping on it with his fingers. It's fascinating to see the difference and how much a person can grow from their originally tiny state.

 

“He's really cute, Hyunjin,” Seungmin says.

 

“Isn't he?”

 

Seungmin nods. He is feeling so, so comfortable in his position now, eyelids slowly drooping as he listens to Hyunjin talk, Hyunjin’s soothing voice lulling him to sleep. Seungmin dozes off after that, unaware of Hyunjin giving him a fond gaze as he watches sleep slowly claiming Seungmin.

  
  
  
  


The sound from the movie startles Seungmin awake. Hyunjin quickly lowers the volume as to not want to bother Seungmin’s sleep, but Seungmin lets Hyunjin knows he's already awake by asking “What time is it now?”

 

“Oh you're awake? Sorry. The volume was too small and then it was too loud,” Hyunjin explains. “It's already half past one.”

 

“Uhh, sorry I fell asleep. I was feeling a little tired,” Seungmin says, rubbing the lingering sleepiness from his eyes with his hand. Then, remembering Seungmin came here with his mom, he lifts his head up to look around for her. “Where's my mom?”

 

“Ah, our moms went out to meet the other neighbors somewhere,” Hyunjin answers. “Doing mom things I guess.”

 

Seungmin chuckles at that, and then yawns into his hand. “I see she's all chummy with your mom now. I can't believe how fast they become friends.”

 

“Like us,” Hyunjin frames his face with his hands, batting his eyelashes at Seungmin. “Right?” he falters slightly, but covers it up with a grin. Seungmin stares and tries not to burst out laughing. Hyunjin is really, _really_ ridiculous sometimes, but he always knows how to make Seungmin smile. “Rightttttt?”

 

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Seungmin dismisses with the wave of his hand, receiving a grin from Hyunjin again.

 

“I wish we could hang out longer but I have to leave for work in another half an hour,” Hyunjin smiles apologetically.

 

“Ah, really? Then I should leave soon,” Seungmin straightens up and stretches his arms. “I didn't know you work.”

 

“Part time, though,” Hyunjin says. "I only work from Tuesday to Friday. Might have to change the schedule once college starts though.”

 

Seungmin nods in understanding. At the mention of college, Seungmin remembers he has classes to register for and feels the dread hitting him. The dread must've shown on Seungmin’s face because Hyunjin’s quickly asking “What's wrong?”

 

“Nothing,” Seungmin shakes his head. “Just. You know. College,” he adds in vaguely.

 

“Oh. Yeah I can't believe college is starting soon. I'm a little bit excited though, not gonna lie.”

 

“Excited?” Seungmin blinks.

 

“Yeah. I don't know. Is it weird?” Hyunjin asks sheepishly, teeth chewing on his lower lip. “I'm excited to learn new stuff, I guess. Starting a new chapter in my life.”

 

“Ahh,” Seungmin says, although he can't actually...relate. The thoughts of starting another new chapter in his life leaves him feeling scared more than excited, if he could be honest about it. There are just too much uncertainties ahead of him, and it worries him on how he’s going to face and handle them all. Will he turn out fine in the end? “I think...I should go.”

 

“So soon? I don't really have to leave now. You can stay longer if you want?”

 

“It's just...I have some stuff I need to settle,” Seungmin sighs. “My...classes,” he reminds Hyunjin.

 

“Ah, right. Last day to register today, huh?”

 

“Mhmm,” Seungmin nods and gets up from the couch. Hyunjin sends him off to the door. “Thanks for lunch,” Seungmin smiles as he slips his shoes on.

 

“Thanks to you and your mom, too! That curry was good. Can't she make it everyday? Let's exchange places; you live here and I'll live at your house.”

 

Seungmin snorts. “Okay, if it means I get to see and play with Kkami everyday.”

 

“...I have come to accept you like Kkami more than you like me.”

 

“Do I even like you at all?” Seungmin teases. Hyunjin gasps loudly.

 

“Kim Seungmin! You're such a heartbreaker. Damn,” Hyunjin jokes and then they burst out laughing. Seungmin feels light and happy, at least at that moment. It’s nice and it’s enough.

 

“I'm just joking. Send my love and kisses to Kkami.”

 

“No, wait, wait. If you want me to give your kisses to Kkami, doesn’t that mean you have to give them to me first before I can pass them to him?” Hyunjin asks cheekily. Seungmin immediately turns away and pulls the door open.

 

“You’re crazy,” is what he says, while Hyunjin bursts out laughing out loud again. Hyunjin is so uncaring, fearless and straightforward sometimes. These traits make Seungmin flustered and give him confusing feelings when he has to face them, like right now. He quickly walks away, telling himself _please, please don’t blush, it’s just a joke!_

 

“I’m just joking by the way!” Hyunjin calls out to him.

 

“Yeah, whatever Hyunjoe,” Seungmin calls back without turning around.

 

“Take care! Say bye to Seungmin hyung, Kkami-ya~”

 

At the mention of Kkami’s name, Seungmin stops midway from opening the gate and turns his head around to look for Kkami but instead, he finds Hyunjin still alone at the entrance door, lips pulled into an amused grin.

 

“I can’t believe that actually worked.”

 

“Hyunjin!” Seungmin huffs and rolls his eyes.

 

“You are so whipped for Kkami, it’s endearing.”

 

“...Hyunjin, I hope you’ll be late for work and get scolded by your manager today.”

 

“Work?” Hyunjin blinks and then widens his eyes, hastily checking the time on his phone. “Oh my god, I _am_ late!” Then he disappears back into the house but left the front door open. Seungmin tuts in disapproval but walks back to close the door for him.

 

Seungmin walks home with a small smile on his face because that’s what Hyunjin does to him whenever he thinks about the guy. Not that he thinks about Hyunjin all the time, but he thinks about him _a lot_ since they met that night. The thoughts of Hyunjin are like the happy place in his mind, a welcome distraction from his other useless thoughts. He hopes to god Hyunjin won't really be late for work and get scolded by his manager, because that ray of sunshine doesn't deserve that. Hyunjin makes people happy, so other people should make him happy as well.

 

By the rant spam Hyunjin sends to him an hour later, Seungmin finds out he did arrive late and get scolded by his supervisor. It's okay though, cause that just gives them an excuse to chat more. Seungmin likes that. It's nice and it’s enough.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you always ♥


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologize for not updating this fic for a while. i have no good excuses except that i was(am) tired/lazy and only wanted to indulge myself in all SKZ contents we're getting haha.
> 
> hope this chapter will make it up for the long absence. self-betad, so i apologize in advance for any typos/mistakes!

Seungmin had thought it would put him in a bit of at ease after registering for his classes but finds out this isn’t the case at all after submitting his form. He still feels nervous and uneasy, and not wanting to think too much about it anymore, he turns off the laptop and leans back on his chair. He’s about to text Wonpil to inform him of his registration when he receives an incoming call.

 

“Felix?” Seungmin raises his eyebrows in question, unsure of why Felix is calling him. He accepts the call and presses the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

 

“Seungmin, hai!” Felix’s deep voice greets him. He still feels awed at how deep Felix’s voice is, especially seeing how young and cute Felix looks– he really wasn’t expecting Felix’s voice to sound like the way it is.

 

“Hello,” Seungmin greets back. “What’s up?”

 

“I’m just gonna cut to the chase,” Felix starts. “Me, Jisung and Jeongin were assigned to bake a cake for Hyunjin’s birthday this weekend. I was wondering if you’d like to join us?”

 

“A birthday cake?” Seungmin perks up. “For Hyunjin’s birthday? When is his birthday, exactly?”

 

“March 20th! We are planning a surprise birthday party for him a day earlier. The hyungs all have their own roles for this as well but trust me, our task will be the most fun! Are you in?”

 

Seungmin’s completely forgotten Hyunjin had told him before that his birthday was in March. It’s not like Seungmin has anything better to do anyway and thinks, why the hell not? It could be fun so he says “Yeah, sure.”

 

“Sweet! Honestly, Jisung is not much of a help so I’m really glad you agreed to come. It’s always good to have an extra pair of hands,” Felix says. “Don’t tell him I said that, though,” he adds as an afterthought. Seungmin chuckles.

 

“I don’t know if I can help much. I’ve never baked before,” Seungmin confesses.

 

“As long as you know how to crack eggs and not spill anything, then you’re all good. One time, Jisung tripped on his own foot and sent the cake batter flying to our faces. It wasn’t a good memory.”

 

Seungmin laughs. “What a clumsy guy.”

 

“A certified klutz,” Felix agreed. “So, I’ll text you more details on this yeah? Try not to get caught by Hyunjin. Dude’s real perceptive when he wants to be.”

 

“Alright,” Seungmin assures. They say their goodbye and end the call. Seungmin grabs the desk calendar on his table and draws a star on the 20th to mark Hyunjin’s birthday, and then on the 19th where the surprise birthday party is to be held. When he puts back the calendar down, it clicks in his mind that he’s going to have to get a present for Hyunjin. “What should I get him?” Seungmin blinks to himself. He’s not very good at picking gifts (he had a hard time just choosing which chocolates or candies to get for Hyunjin…) and knows he’s going to stress himself out over this in the next few days. If he asks Hyunjin what he likes, or what he’s interested in, Hyunjin will surely catch on immediately.

 

Seungmin glances at his phone. Hyunjin has stopped replying because he had to go back to work, and mentioned he won’t be replying for a while because the cafe he is working at is unusually busy today even when it's past peak hours. He’s startled when the phone pings, indicating a new message has just come in.

 

**FelixLee**

It’s this Sat!

Meet us at our bakery shop at 2PM

You know how to get there, right?

Or I can ask Jeongin to get you and you guys can go together

He lives  the closest to you and Hyunjin

 

Okay!

And don’t worry. I can go there on my own

I’ll meet you guys there at 2PM sharp then

 

**FelixLee**

Great!

It’ll be so much fun :D

 

I’m excited! ^o^

  
  
  
  
  


There is something thrilling about knowing something someone else doesn’t know. Seungmin may be bad at lying, but he’s good at keeping secrets so he really deserves a pat on the back for being able to keep the surprise birthday party a secret from Hyunjin despite talking and texting with the said guy every day. Saturday is finally here (Seungmin thought it would never come– that’s how much he is looking forward to it) and Seungmin is a little more than excited to meet his friends and bake the cake together.

 

He coincidentally meets Jeongin at the bus stop so they decide to go together since after all, they’re headed to the same destination. Seungmin finds out Jeongin is a little shy when it’s just the two of them present, which Seungmin is glad of knowing because it is not only him who feels a little awkward and shy. Jeongin is still cheerful, though, and Seungmin can tell Jeongin is trying to fill in the gaps of silence and awkwardness between them, so Seungmin tries harder too. Once they warm up to each other’s presence, conversations flow easier and naturally as they share laughter and playfully pushing each other.

 

When they arrive at the bakery, Felix is already waiting for them with all the ingredients ready on the huge kitchen island. The bakery is closed for the day, a special holiday to celebrate the shop’s opening anniversary. Seungmin takes a look at everything with childish fascination as he had never been to what’s further inside a bakery shop before.

 

“Shall we start now?” Felix cheerfully says, putting the aprons on for both Seungmin and Jeongin.

 

“What about Jisung? Aren’t we going to wait for him?” Seungmin asks.

 

“He’s going to be a little late,” Felix tells him. “And like I said, he’s not going to be much of a help.” Jeongin, who’s standing on Felix’s other side, giggles in agreement.

 

“He’s just going to hinder us from finishing our job smoothly,” Jeongin says. “We can let him do the icing though?” he suggests after. Felix shakes his head without even giving it a thought.

 

“Too dangerous. He’ll send everything flying all over the place again,” Felix shudders, then laughs with Seungmin and Jeongin.

 

“I heard that!” Jisung makes his presence known, the bell above the back door tinkling as he enters the place. “It was just _one_ time. Let me live. Jesus.”

 

Seungmin smiles at Jisung. “Hi, Jisung!”

 

“Ahh,” Jisung makes a show of spreading his arms wide and throwing his head back with an appreciative smile on his face as he walks towards Seungmin and envelopes him in a hug. “The only person who’s really happy to see me here. Hi to you, too, Seungminnie.”

 

“He was only saying hi. He didn’t say he was happy to see you,” Jeongin quips.

 

“Shut,” Jisung barks, tightening his arms around Seungmin. Seungmin hugs Jisung back. “He said hi with a smile on his face. He _is_ happy to see me.”

 

“I am,” Seungmin pats his hand on Jisung’s back and can feel the guy grinning into Seungmin’s shoulder. “How are you?”

 

“Ughh, tired.” Jisung pulls away from the hug and moves to sit on one of the stools across of where the other three are standing. “I’ve been working for 16 hours straight cause I had to cover for my friend who had to take an emergency leave,” he yawns at the end of his sentence.

 

“Damn bro, no wonder you look like shit,” Felix teases, but the tone is layered with concern. “Why don’t you take a nap and we’ll wake you up if we need help in anything.”

 

“Okay,” Jisung agrees, pressing his cheek on his crossed arms on the counter. “Just wake me up if you guys need anything, yeah?” he mumbles and dozes off immediately.

 

“Well, that was quick and painless,” Jeongin comments in amusement.

 

“He must be really tired. Is he going to be okay?” Seungmin asks worriedly.

 

“Yeah. He’ll be okay after resting,” Felix assures. “Let’s start our work!”

 

Seungmin and Jeongin agree without a word.

  
  
  
  


They’ve all decided beforehand to bake red velvet cake with nutella spread and cheese cream (Hyunjin’s favorite). With Felix’s guide, Seungmin and Jeongin have no problem at all to get things done. They work well together without causing any trouble and Felix is really pleased with how well things are going.

 

Jisung only wakes up when they’re done staking the cake into two layers with _lots_ of cheese cream and nutella spread in the middle, which is roughly around two hours after they started. Jisung had been asleep the whole time, not bothered or interrupted by the noises in the kitchen at all. That’s when Seungmin learns Jisung is a heavy sleeper.

 

“You woke up just in time, mate,” Felix grins, eyes focused on coating the cake with the same cheese cream. Seungmin watches in awe at Felix’s expert hands in doing the job. Felix had let Seungmin know his love for baking while they were working on making the cheese cream for the cake, and Seungmin can testify how good Felix is at baking by the way he knows exactly how and what to do without any mistakes– a proof that Felix has done this many times before and knows things by heart now.

 

“Is it my turn already?” Jisung stretches his arms. He looks more alive than he was couple of hours ago. He still looks tired, but way better now.

 

“Yes. We need your help to write the birthday message on the cake.” Felix hands Jisung the leftover nutella that he had put in the self-made piping bag after leaving it in the refrigerator for an hour to hardened the texture a bit. Jisung pulls the cake stand closer to himself.

 

“What should we write?” Jisung asks for suggestions. “Happy birthday, loser?”

 

Jeongin snickers. “Happy birthday Joe.” They all laugh.

 

“Just write “Happy Birthday Jinnie.” Nice and simple,” Seungmin says.

 

“Oh, did you know he _really_ wouldn't let us call him Jinnie anymore?” Felix turns to Seungmin with a cheeky smile on his face. Catching what Felix is trying to say, both Jeongin and Jisung share a knowing grin as well.

 

“What?” Seungmin blinks in confusion, eyes darting from Felix, to Jisung, to Jeongin and then back to Felix again. “Why?”

 

“Because~” Jisung sing-songs. He squirts the Nutella onto his finger and puts it into his mouth. “He said it’s only for you to call him that.”

 

Seungmin is unsure of what Jisung meant but he suddenly feels warm. “But why?” he asks again.

 

“He said it is a special name only you can call him with,” Jeongin clarifies. “So we’re not allowed to call him with that name, even though we never really use that name on him before.”

 

“He’s so ridiculous,” Seungmin says, but can’t hide the smile on his face.

 

“He is,” Felix grins in agreement. “I don’t blame him for being so goddamn whipped.”

 

“Whipped?” Seungmin raises his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

 

Felix, Jisung and Jeongin share laughter– not the mocking kind, but somehow rather endeared though Seungmin doesn’t know why, exactly.

 

“It’s nothing. Let’s just write “Happy Birthday Hyunjinnie!” then. Please don’t mess it up, Jisung. I’m very serious.”

 

Jisung snorts. “ What do you take me for? An amateur? Relax. I got this,” Jisung says.

 

(Jeongin’s high pitched shriek and Felix’s scream that follow after only confirms that Jisung obviously doesn’t get it right; already messing the very first letter. Seungmin bursts out laughing so loud and hard he has tears in his eyes.)

  
  
  
  


**Hyunjin’s Bday Party! (8)**

 

**FelixLee**

SOS

 

**CB97**

Odg what is it

 

**Binnie**

HYUNJIN FCKN BAILED ON US QUICK GO TO PLAN B

 

**Kim Woojin**

OMG THERE IS NO PLAN B

 

Seungmin reads the panicked texts with his jaw dropped open, with he himself unable to believe this is happening. Everything was supposed to go as planned– Changbin and Felix were meant to take Hyunjin out of the house to go somewhere so the rest of the boys could decorate Hyunjin’s house and prepare the foods before Hyunjin gets back home. They would hide in the kitchen, wait for Hyunjin to walk in, jumped out from their spots and sing Hyunjin a happy birthday. It had been an easy and simple plan but of course they hadn’t thought of possibilities like this to come up and didn’t prepare other plans and now everyone is panicking on what to do.

 

**hhj203**

Hey

Wanna hangout?

 

Seungmin almost jumped in surprise when he received the texts from Hyunjin. Reading the texts, he quickly thinks of something and lets the other boys know.

 

**Hyunjin’s Bday Party (8)**

 

Ok change of plan

Just do it at my home

 

**CB97**

What do you mean?

 

**Kim Woojin**

oh no we don’t want to disturb your family, seungminnie!

 

It’s okay. My mom would love to have you guys around :)

Hyunjin is texting me to come hangout at his house. I’ll go there and meet him.

I’ll tell my mom and you guys can just use our house for the bday party

Just do it, okay? We don’t have time. I’m going to Hyunjin’s house now

Let me know when everything is all set

 

Seungmin runs downstairs to let his mom know about the sudden plan. She’s a little confused but doesn’t seem to mind and that’s all he needs to know to proceed.

 

Okay! I’m on my way there :)

See you soon!

 

**hhj203**

Yeay see you soon!

I’m really bored and have nothing to do

Haha

 

Seungmin snorts. “If you didn’t cancel the plan with Felix and Changbin, then you would’ve had something to do,” Seungmin talks to himself. He lets the other boys know that he is leaving and that to go to his house in the next 10 minutes or so as he makes his way to the Hwangs’ residence.

 

“What are we going to do?” Mrs. Hwang whispers loudly as soon as she lets Seungmin in.

 

“I thought he was supposed to leave with Binnie and Felix but he’s still stuck in his room?” says Hyunjin’s dad.

 

“Change of plan,” Seungmin tells Hyunjin’s parents. “We’re doing it at our home instead. You can go there, too, if you want? I’ll keep him company and distract him for as long as I can.”

 

“Oh. Alright then.”

 

Seungmin smiles and does a fist pump at them, who returns it with their own and hurriedly move back to the kitchen while Seungmin heads upstairs.

 

“Kkami-ya, Seungminnie hyung is here to visit you~,” he barges into Hyunjin’s room. Hyunjin immediately turns his chair around to greet Seungmin with a grin, Kkami nestled comfortably on his lap.

 

“So you came.”

 

Seungmin rolls his eyes and takes a seat at the edge of the bed. “Yeah, obviously? You called me over.”

 

“You _listened_ to me,” Hyunjin wipes a fake tear. “If I tell you to love me, would you listen and do as I told as well?”

 

“...You don’t know how to stop, do you?”

 

“Don’t stop, can’t stop,” Hyunjin winks. Seungmin doesn’t know if Hyunjin got better at it, or if Seungmin’s already immune to it enough to the point of thinking the weird wink’s starting to look quite charming in his eyes, but...Seungmin quickly shakes the thoughts off.

 

“Whatever,” Seungmin dismisses. “What are we doing today?”

 

“Umm I don’t know. I didn’t think that far when inviting you over,” Hyunjin shrugs casually. He grins when Seungmin laughs. “I was supposed to be out with Felix and Binnie hyung but I didn’t feel like being the third wheel today.”

 

“Is that so?” entertains Seungmin. He already knew what they were going to do but asks anyway: “What was the plan with them?”

 

“Felix wanted to try this new ice cream place apparently? But like, who eats ice cream in a cold weather?”

 

Seungmin raises his hand. “Ice creams are for everyday weather, excuse you, Hwang Hyunjin.”

 

“Oh. Do you want to go with me tomorrow then?”

 

“Very smooth, Hwang,” Seungmin laughs. When Hyunjin pouts, Seungmin quickly adds “But yeah, we can go tomorrow if you want.” It was worth it to say that because he’s rewarded with Hyunjin’s happy grin– the one that makes his eyes scrunched into crescent moon shapes, the one that never failed to make Seungmin’s breath hitched a little.

 

“I would love to go out with you tomorrow. You are not allowed to bail on me, just putting that out here.”

 

“Like what you’re doing to Felix and Changbin hyung today?”

 

“Hey,” Hyunjin gives a pointed look. “Like I said, I don’t feel like being the third wheel today. Felix is my best friend, but he needs to know he doesn’t have to take me out with him on his dates with Binnie hyung all the freaking time.”

 

Seungmin’s eyebrows rise up with interest. “Sorry if this is intrusive, but. Is– Are Felix and Changbin hyung– you know–”

 

“Together?” Hyunjin finishes the sentence for him. Seungmin nods. “Yeah, they are. Why?” Hyunjin cocks his head to the side questioningly, careful eyes observing Seungmin’s reaction. “Is it weird to you? A guy with another guy?”

 

“What?” Seungmin splutters. “Of course not! I think they’re cute together,” he mumbles, and it’s the truth. He really doesn’t have anything against relationships of people of the same gender, and they both leave the topic at that. Seungmin activates his phone and sees no text from any of the other guys yet. He has to think fast of what to do now to kill the time. “If you don’t mind me asking, how’d you all meet?”

 

“Well me and Jisung had known each other since kindergarten. You can say we are childhood friends,” Hyunjin smiles. “We met Felix in 5th grade and occasionally hangout with Chan hyung. As for Jeongin, Felix used to tutor him English. Woojin hyung is a friend Chan hyung made in music theory class and Minho hyung is in the same dance team with me and Felix.”

 

“Oh,” Seungmin says and then “Wait, you dance?”

 

“I mean, I used to,” Hyunjin shrugs. “I don’t have time for it anymore. I’m focusing more on photography.”

 

Seungmin lets his brain digests what he heard, questions emerging in his head and curiosity prickling at him. He hesitates for a bit but eventually says “Can I ask you another question?”

 

Hyunjin watches as Kkami jumps down from his lap and up onto Seungmin’s, making himself comfortable there. Seungmin welcomes the little dog with open arms, smiling and rubbing Kkami’s back. It’s like Kkami senses his nerves and worries, and so offers his presence to Seungmin in hope to comfort him, which Seungmin is extremely thankful of.

 

“Sure,” Hyunjin says. “Shoot.”

 

“Why– Why do you want to be a photographer?” Seungmin questions, eyes slightly squinted in wonder. “Is it because your parents want you to?”

 

“Okay, first of all, that’s two questions,” Hyunjin answers cheekily. Seungmin rolls his eyes and Hyunjin laughs. “Second and most important of all, I want to be a photographer because I want to,” he says with a soft smile. “No one forced me to. I’m doing it _because_ I want to,” he reiterates. “Because I like it and photography makes me happy. My family supports it. They tell me it’s not going to be easy– honestly, nothing in life is, but I am willing to take the risk. I have wanted to become a photographer since the day I received my first camera on my 9th birthday.”

 

“That’s– that’s really nice,” Seungmin comments. Looking back, Seungmin had wanted to be a doctor ever since he was a kid, too. At first, it was only an innocent wish of a child to follow his parents’ footsteps but after a while, it’s more to because of pressure from his dad, especially after knowing Seungmin’s started to get interested in other things that are not related to medical fields. His dad had inherited one of the largest hospitals under the Kim’s Corporation after the death of Seungmin’s grandfather, and ever since then, his dad’s changed to a completely different man. _I have a reputation to uphold_ , he would say. _All of my children shall be surgeons like I am and make our family proud._

 

“Seungminnie?” Seungmin hears Hyunjin calling for him so he lifts his gaze up to the said guy. “You okay?”

 

“Yeah,” Seungmin shakes his head to get rid of the thoughts clouding his mind. “Was just thinking about something.”

 

“I see,” Hyunjin doesn’t prod further. He pulls his legs up on the chair to hug them against his chest. “What about you? What do you want to be?” he asks. The question is not really unexpected– Seungmin’s figured Hyunjin would ask either out of curiosity or courtesy, but it still catches Seungmin off guard.

 

“Uh,” he starts unsurely, avoiding Hyunjin’s eyes. “I just–. I just want to make my family happy, I guess. Make them,” he swallows. “Proud.” Before Seungmin can stop himself, he’s saying “I wanted to be a surgeon but I am not really good with all...the blood and stuff. You know.”

 

Hyunjin hums thoughtfully. “Bloods _are_ nasty,” he agrees with a scrunch of his nose. Seungmin just has to smile at that. “So are you going to be a pharmacist? Or like work in a lab or something?”

 

“Yeah. Maybe. I don’t know,” Seungmin shrugs. Thinking about being stuck in a research lab or behind a pharmacy counter internally suffocates him, so Seungmin shuts the thought down immediately. Today is supposed to be a happy day and it _will_ be a happy day. Seungmin will not let anyone or himself ruins it.

 

“I thought you’d be more into music,” Hyunjin comments. Seungmin offers a tight smile. “Or creative writing? I guess it’s true we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Being a science major suits you too, though. You’re smart.”

 

“You think?”

 

“Smarter than most of the guys at least,” Hyunjin refers to their other friends with a laugh. _Not smart enough to get into prestigious medical institution, though,_ the voice inside his head says. _A disgrace._ “Hey,” Hyunjin calls for Seungmin again. “Just remember one thing.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Whatever you do, if you love it and if it makes you happy, every inch of your happiness and success would mean a lot not only to you, but to your loved ones as well. They will be happy for you. They will be proud of you,” Hyunjin says. “Parents...don’t expect as much as we think they are from us. My mom always says they only want me to live healthily and happily. I know it’s hard to believe but they say it’s really just that simple.”

 

In the pocket where Seungmin puts his phone at, he can feel vibrations from possibly a new text, which Seungmin supposes is from one of their friends to inform him that they are ready. Even so, Seungmin doesn’t take his phone out to check, deciding to stay a bit longer and letting his mind think a little. Just a little.

 

 _It is not that simple_ , he thinks to himself. If Wonpil can do it, than why can’t he? If Wonpil had to do it, if his brother had done it– becoming a doctor like what their dad had wanted, is it okay for Seungmin _not_ to? Is it okay to leave Wonpil carrying the burden of living their dad’s wish (pressure) for the both of them? _So unfair and selfish of you, tsk._

 

The phone vibrates again in his pocket and this time Seungmin takes it out to open the texts.

 

**YangFox**

we’re ready to party!!!

 

**FelixLee**

Where are you?

You can come now. We’re all set and ready.

 

Seungmin locks his phone after sending a quick reply and lifts his head up at Hyunjin as he pockets the device back in. “I am needed at home,” Seungmin starts.

 

“Awwh you have to go now? But you just got here!”

 

“Yeah.” Seungmin shrugs. “My mom is expecting a package but she needs to go out for a while.” Seungmin almost can’t believe how natural and easy it was for him to say that. “You wanna hangout at my house instead?”

 

Hyunjin grins and stands up from the chair. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  
  
  
  


The surprise goes like this:

 

Seungmin lets Hyunjin into the house first but internally panics seeing the shoes scattered at the entryway, and so proceeds to cover Hyunjin’s eyes with his hands from behind.

 

“What’s going on?” Hyunjin says, half surprised and half amused, but doesn’t pull away from Seungmin’s hands.

 

“Uh, umm,” Seungmin widens his eyes at Jisung peeking his head from the kitchen and then disappearing back in. “Can you just, slip your shoes off and walk forward.”

 

“Okay, but I’ll need you to take your hands off my eyes first, Seungminnie.”

 

“It’s okay, I’ll be your eyes.”

 

Hyunjin chuckles. Seungmin is too focused on trying not to ruin the surprise to notice Hyunjin’s cheeks turning pink. “Really, what’s going on? Is it the shoes?” Seungmin stiffens but relaxes again when Hyunjin continues with a “It’s okay. I turn our entryway messy with my shoes too, don’t worry,” and pulls Seungmin’s hands down.

 

“Well, okay then,” Seungmin hurriedly grabs Hyunjin’s hand and pulls him towards the kitchen before Hyunjin pays more attention on the shoes and realizes they belong to their friends.

 

Whatever Hyunjin wanted to say died down in his throat when they enter the kitchen, with everyone shouting “Surprise!”, sounds of party poppers filling the air before they’re being replaced with everyone singing a birthday song. Hyunjin startles and steps back a little while holding onto Seungmin’s arm but that doesn’t stop Woojin from approaching them and putting a party hat on Hyunjin.

 

“ _What_ ,” Hyunjin gawks at everything and everyone around them but there’s a hint of a smile on the corners of his lips and eyes, genuinely surprised with what’s going on. It makes Seungmin smiles and he pulls Hyunjin towards the counter where the cake is. “What, what is _this_?” Hyunjin giggles. Seungmin pretends the sound doesn’t make his heart skips a beat. “Oh my god. Whose idea is this?” Hyunjin asks after they’re done singing the birthday song. All of their friends raises their hands up, shouting “me!” but Hyunjin’s gaze goes straight to Seungmin when Seungmin innocently raises his hand too. “Aww it was your idea? Thank you Seungminnie,” he jokes, pinching Seungmin’s cheek. The parents and some of their friends laugh, but the other half of them whines in protest of not being acknowledged by Hyunjin.

 

“Come on, make a wish and blow the candles before they melt on the cake!” Jisung urges, so Hyunjin does. He closes his eyes and makes a quick wish before blowing out the candles.

 

“Thank you so much, everyone!” Hyunjin claps his hands with a huge grin on his face. “I’m going to pretend you all totally got my birthday right.”

 

“You mean your birthday is not today?” Chan plays along and gasps. “Okay everyone, pack up. Let’s meet here again same time tomorrow,” he says, making everyone laugh.

 

“No, really. Thank you for all of this. Also, when will Jisung stop butchering things?” Hyunjin says referring to the poorly concealed mistake on the cake. Jisung had tried to cover his lettering mistake by making a heart but it ended up looking like a random circle instead. He’d wanted to make bigger heart then but was quickly stopped by Felix and Jeongin.

 

“What? How’d you know it was me?” Jisung wonders.

 

“Everyone would know it was you, hyung,” Jeongin answers for him.

 

“Hey, what is that supposed to mean?” Jisung asks again but at this point nobody pays any more attention as they’re busy settling themselves in the kitchen. Jisung grumbles something from under his breath but gives a reassuring smile when Seungmin rubs a comforting hand on Jisung’s back.

 

Trying to settle _everyone_ in the kitchen is a chaos to say the least because even though the Kims have a huge kitchen (bigger than necessary for only three occupants in the house), they don’t have enough chairs for twelve people, so they decide the parents can take the small table while the group of friends take the kitchen island– some sitting on the stools while the others remain standing while eating since they don’t really mind anyway. The usually quiet kitchen is filled with loud chatters and laughter, and it’s new to Seungmin but not unwelcome. In fact, he’s really enjoying it and is secretly grateful they’re doing this at their home.

 

The kitchen only turns quiet when Wonpil comes in with a “There’s a party at my own house and I wasn’t invited?”

 

“Hyung!” Seungmin beams, putting his fork down and waving a hand at his brother. Wonpil looks tired as usual but the smile never leaves his face. They slowly fall back into their conversations as Wonpil greets the parents first and makes small talks with them before he approaches Seungmin and drapes an arm around his younger brother’s shoulders.

 

“Hi pup,” he greets Seungmin with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

 

“Pup?” Hyunjin interrupts eagerly.

 

“Yes, isn’t he cute like a puppy? Puppy Seungmin. Actually you know what? When we were younger, he liked to pretend he’s a puppy and barked at me.”

 

“Hyung!” Seungmin widens his eye at Wonpil in disbelief, cheeks flushing red at his brother exposing his childhood memories. His friends laugh at this information, but as usual not in the mocking way. Seungmin even heard someone cooing but doesn’t dare to lift his head up. He’s so embarrassed and hopes to God Wonpil won’t say any more embarrassing things about him.

 

“So you guys must be Seungmin’s friends,” Wonpil states instead of asking, a collective ‘yes’ come from the kitchen island. “I am Seungmin’s brother. You can call me Wonpil hyung or Dr. Kim,” he jokes.

 

“Oh wow, you’re a doctor?” Minho asks.

 

“Yeap,” Wonpil affirms with an easy smile. “I only know Hyunjin here. Why don’t you all introduce yourself, too?”

 

Seungmin watches and listens to his friends introducing themselves to Wonpil, glad that both sides seem to like each other already. He’s happy and proud that Wonpil gets to finally meet his friends and vice versa, making a small smile appears on his face. That is until Wonpil says something embarrassing again.

 

“Seungmin talks _a lot_ about you guys,” Wonpil says.

 

“Ah, hyung,” Seungmin whines and buries his warm face on his palms. Wonpil doesn’t stop.

 

“He really adores you guys so much.”

 

“ _Please_ , God, go away hyung. This is ‘young people only’ table,” Seungmin mumbles into his hands. Wonpil chuckles.

 

“But really though. Thank you for being his friends and taking care of him,” Wonpil adds sincerely. Seungmin drops his hands to look at Wonpil giving him a fond smile. “They are great people and I’m happy for you,” he says to Seungmin this time. Seungmin blinks.

 

“We love being his friends too!” Jisung announces. “He’s so kind and cute.”

 

“Like I said, a puppy,” Wonpil grins teasingly again.

 

“Stop it, hyung. You’re encouraging them to call me a puppy.”

 

“But you are,” Woojin agrees. They laugh when Seungmin groans at what Woojin said.

 

“Anyway, hyung, you should have some of the cake too. Seungmin baked it with me and Jeongin,” Felix suggests.

 

“He did?” both Wonpil and Hyunjin perk up at this information. Seungmin flushes red again.

 

“Wow, I definitely should then. You guys have fun and eat more. I will mingle with the...slightly less younger crowd now,” Wonpil grins as he approaches the last empty seat on the small table, having his mom slapped his shoulder lightly from what he said.

 

“You have a really cool brother,” Felix comments. “Unlike Chris.”

 

“Hey!” Chan throws a chip at Felix, who easily dodges it. Woojin gives a stern look and asks them not to throw foods around. Changbin picks the chip on the counter and feeds it to Felix.

 

“Gross,” Hyunjin says in distaste. “I thought you guys were going to the new ice cream shop. Why are you here?”

 

“You fool. That was a part of the plan but you bailed on us on the very last minute and ruined it,” Changbin shakes his head. “We were supposed to do this,” he gestures at the small birthday party with his hand and continues with “at your house.”

 

“Oh,” Hyunjin says when everything starts to click together. “Oh, okay. Oh my god and now we’re interrupting your family’s space, Seungminnie,” he adds in with widened eyes.

 

“Don’t worry about it, Hyunjin,” Seungmin’s mom says. They turn to look at her. “No one is bothering anyone here. I am glad we’re doing this at our home, actually. It’s really nice to have everyone here. You guys should come here more often, I will cook you foods!”

 

“Oh no, Jinah. These kids eat a lot, I fear for your wallet and energy already,” Hyunjin’s mom interrupts jokingly. The boys laugh but doesn’t deny their huge appetite.

 

“That’s okay. Seungmin will help me with the cooking. Right, baby?”

 

Seungmin chokes on his drink at his mom calling him with a pet name in front of all these people. “Mom,” he presses in embarrassment. Everyone just laughs again and Seungmin is thankful when they get back to eating and having different conversations amongst themselves. “Ugh, what is with my family embarrassing me in front of other people,” Seungmin mumbles to no one in particular. Of course, only the ones standing close to him– Hyunjin and Jeongin heard him. Jeongin offers a smile and then falls into defensive mode trying to protect his foods on the plate when Jisung tries to steal from him from across the kitchen island.

 

“You’re so cute,” Hyunjin comments. “Your brother and mom are great people, Seungminnie.”

 

Seungmin has to smile at that because it’s a fact he himself knew. His mom and brother are his life, his everything. “They are.”

 

Hyunjin returns the smile. “So, you made this cake, huh?”

 

“With Jeongin and Felix, yeah. How is it? Is it good? It was my first time baking actually...couldn’t have done it without Felix and Jeongin.”

 

“It’s really good for a first time!” Hyunjin assures. From across of where they are, Seungmin can hear Felix and Changbin snickering quietly to each other. He is very mildly curious but doesn’t have the chance to find out why as Hyunjin is still talking to him. “Maybe your love and sincerity help in making it tastes good~”

 

Felix and Changbin are full-blown laughing now, dropping their eating utensils on their plates. Both Seungmin and Hyunjin turn to see them leaning on each other’s sides as they laugh, gaining curious attention from their other friends.

 

“What’s so funny?” Minho asks from the end of the kitchen island.

 

“Yeah. Anything you want to share?” Jisung chimes in.

 

“ _Oh dude, Jin is such a lame flirt_ ,” Felix cranes his neck at Jisung, switching to heavily accented English. Seungmin doesn’t know what’s with the sudden switch in language but doesn’t ask. He understands both Korean and English perfectly anyway.

 

“Hey, Korean please!” Minho says, the same time Hyunjin shouts a “ _Shut up!_ ” while throwing a cherry tomato at Felix that immediately has Woojin scolding him with a “Yah, what did I say about throwing your foods??” right after.

 

“ _I was_ not _flirting._ ”

 

“ _What did he say?_ ” Jisung smirks. Jeongin protests loudly when Jisung also switches to English.

 

“Felix said Hyunjin is a lame flirt,” Seungmin turns to Jeongin to explain to him. Everyone at the island falls into dead silence. Noticing the lack of sound, Seungmin slowly blinks his eyes at everyone. Jisung is looking at him in amusement, while Felix looks somewhere in between mortified and worried. “What?” Seungmin asks. When he looks back at Hyunjin, the taller guy’s face is as red as the cherry tomato, gaze piercing at Felix, who then uselessly hides behind the smaller and shorter Changbin.

 

“ _Sorry!_ ” Felix says.

 

“You okay?” Seungmin lands a careful hand on Hyunjin’s shoulder.

 

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m good, totally fine, ha ha,” Hyunjin stuffs a huge portion of the cake into his mouth, then continues glaring at Felix while chewing on the food.

 

“Didn’t know you understand English very well, Seungminnie! Do you speak the language too?” Chan, standing on Hyunjin’s other side, asks.

 

“Yeah, I do. I went to study in the US for a bit,” Seungmin informs him, and then pats his hand on Hyunjin’s back when the latter chokes on his cake. “It’s my second language.” “You really okay?” Seungmin asks worriedly and passes the water to Hyunjin. Hyunjin only nods his head and downs the drink.

 

“You know what time is it? Time to give Hyunjin his birthday present!” Jisung loudly announces, not so discreetly trying to clear the weird tense in the air, as well as change the topic. It works as everyone immediately disperses to get their presents for Hyunjin, Seungmin included.

  
  
  
  


Hyunjin did not open the presents he get until later that night apparently. Seungmin receives a text from him.

 

**hhj203**

I think you have mistaken my birthday for Kkami’s

 

Seungmin grins. Attached with the text is a picture of Kkami dressed in a bunny outfit. Kkami looks so cute, Seungmin has to try really hard not to squeal out loud.

 

I knew from the moment i laid my eyes on that costume, Kkami would look so cute in it

 

**hhj203**

it is very cute alright

But where’s MY present?

 

Um. They don’t come in your size jinnie ._.

 

**hhj203**

Akshsjs

 

Your present is that your pet gets cuter with the bunny outfit!

What an upgrade

:D

 

**hhj203**

Akdhsjjd

I can’t believe you kim seungmin

But i’ll forgive you cause you’re so cute u_u

 

I can get away with anything for being cute?

Even though i’m not really that cute?

 

**hhj203**

But you are cute u_u

 

Hahah you’re ridiculous

 

**hhj203**

Pshh

Hey hey minnie

 

Yes?

 

**hhj203**

Send me a picture of you :D

 

Why?

 

**hhj203**

So i can look at it when i can’t see you

Also will think of it as your birthday present for me

Seungmin blushes hard at that, but he’s smiling, already searching his phone’s gallery to look for pictures of himself to send to Hyunjin. There’s expectedly not that much pictures of him since he doesn’t take selcas that often, but there are a few photos from yesterday when he went out for early dinner with Jeongin, Felix and Jisung after they were done with the birthday cake.

 

You’re so silly

But here’s a picture from yesterday

 

**hhj203**

Omg a whole qt T___T

Why was felix with you tho >_>

 

Lol

We were baking together yesterday remember

 

**hhj203**

...right. I forgot.

Send me a solo picture of yourself pls u_u

 

Lol why

Just crop that pic LOL

I’m kidding

 

**hhj203**

It is the wish of the birthday boy D<

No questions pls D<

 

Lol

Oh alright

There. Happy?

 

**hhj203**

Yes uwu

Can i just say you look good in denim

 

Thank you?

 

**hhj203**

Really! They look really good on you

 

Ok. Thank you :)

 

Seungmin chews on his lower lip, internally debating with himself whether he should ask for Hyunjin’s picture too. Just out of courtesy, of course, but maybe also because he wants a picture of Hyunjin for himself, too. Hyunjin doesn’t have to know that, though. In the end, Seungmin decides to just go for it.

 

Can you send a picture of yourself too?

 

**hhj203**

:D

For you to look at when you can’t see me? ;)

 

Actually, no.

For me to assign as your picture for my contact

So i know when you’re calling and i don’t have to pick up

 

**hhj203**

Omg ;(

 

Lol i’m kidding!

 

**hhj203**

:(

:((((

 

Jinnie. I’m kidding

 

**hhj203**

Jinnie is: sad

 

Minnie is: sorry

 

**hhj203**

Minnie is: too cute for jinnie’s heart

 

Jinnie is: going to send a picture of himself or minnie is: going to sleep

 

**hhj203**

Lol akhsks

Ok don’t go to sleep. I’m not sleepy yet

 

But maybe i am

 

**hhj203**

PLS STAY UP A LITTLE BIT MORE

It’s only 10mins to midnight

Here's a picture to keep you awake? (?)

 

I’m kidding. I’m not sleepy yet.

 

Seungmin lied. He is already sleepy. And because he is sleepy, his brain-to-mouth(or hand in this case) filter is not fully functioning so he types and sends:

 

Jinnie you look so cute in pink

 

**hhj203**

Oh really?

 

Yes

You’re so cute

 

**hhj203**

Not any cuter than you though

 

Impossible

 

**hhj203**

I’ll send a cool picture of myself

Because i don’t want to be cute

You’re supposed to be the cute one haha

 

We’ll be cute together

 

**hhj203**

?

 

I mean we can be cute together

 

**hhj203**

Oh…

Anyway

I’m cool

 

Wow. You’re so handsome

 

**hhj203**

Why, thank you

 

Seungmin yawns but quickly saves the pictures and lies down on his side. He briefly looks at the time on the clock on the nightstand before calling Hyunjin and lazily pressing the phone on his ear. Hyunjin picks up after the first ring.

 

“Seungminnie?”

 

“Shh,” Seungmin shushes. He watches as the last minute ticks by and once it hits midnight, he begins to sing a birthday song to Hyunjin. “Happy birthday, Jinnie,” he says after ending the song.

 

“T-thank you.” Seungmin hears the stutter but doesn’t question it.

 

“You’re welcome, old man.”

 

Hyunjin snorts and laughs. “What do you mean old man? We’re literally the same age!”

 

“Not yet officially. I’m still 19.”

 

“Right. When is your birthday again?”

 

“September.”

 

“Date?”

 

“22nd.”

 

“Woah, that’s not far from Jisung’s and Felix’s birthdays!” Hyunjin exclaims.

 

“Really?” Seungmin blinks in surprise. “When are their birthdays?”

 

“14th and 15th respectively.”

 

“Oh wow, it’s amazing they’re only a day apart,” Seungmin comments in amusement.

 

“Mhmm. Guess we have an addition to the September-line! We’ll celebrate all of your birthdays together to cut costs,” Hyunjin laughs.

 

“Well, I don’t mind. That will be...quite nice actually.”

 

Hyunjin hums thoughtfully. “I’d want to celebrate your birthday separately though. I called dibs on that day first! I mean, if you’re not going to celebrate with your family, that is.”

 

Seungmin chuckles at him. “Jinnie, it’s like 6 months away. Still too early to tell what I’m gonna do on that day.”

 

“You’re going out with me, is what you’re going to do that day~”

 

“Sure,” Seungmin rolls his eyes. Not that Hyunjin can see him, though. Then he yawns again.

 

“Sleepy?”

 

“Mhmm,” Seungmin closes his eyes.

 

“Go to sleep then.”

 

“I am. Good night.”

 

“Wait!”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“We’re still going out tomorrow, right? To get ice cream together?”

 

“Oh yeah, of course.”

 

“Okay, good,” Hyunjin sounds relieved on the other end of the line. “See you tomorrow then.”

 

“Yeah, okay. You go to sleep, too.”

 

“I will. Good night, Minnie.”

 

The smile in Hyunjin’s voice makes Seungmin smile too. “Good night, Jinnie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have a good weekend, lovelies <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This chapter is a lot shorter than i intended to write, so sorry about that! But it's 4k of seungjin fluff so i hope that'll make it up for taking too long to update :( at this rate, i really believe i can only update once a month akhsksh. BUT ANYWAY. Hope you will enjoy this chapter! <3

It’s the vibrations of his phone that wakes Seungmin up.

 

Seungmin doesn’t know what time it is. The day’s too bright to be night time, but also too gloomy for him to be sure what time in the morning it currently is. Slowly, while reaching for his phone under the pillow, his blurry mind registers the pitter patter of the rain on the roof and his bedroom window.

 

Seungmin groans at how sleepy he is still, feeling a little annoyed his sleep was disturbed when he could get some more rest in this weather– the perfect weather to be lazy and just stay in bed. He doesn’t even look who’s calling him on the phone, accepting the call with closed eyes and pressing it onto his ear.

 

“Hello?” Seungmin says, voice barely there.

 

“It’s raining!” Of course. It’s Hyunjin. Only this guy will call him at early hours to tell Seungmin something he’s already aware of.

 

Unfazed and sleepy, Seungmin says “Yeah, okay. Thanks for the weather report, Mr Weather Man. Bye.”

 

“Nooo!” he hears Hyunjin whine. Seungmin blinks his eyes open and looks at the phone funny before pressing it back onto his ear. “It’s  _ raining _ . Which means we can’t go out. Which  _ means _ we can’t get ice cream!”

 

“Hyunjin, listen. It’s cold and it’s raining. Who eats ice creams in this kind of weather?”

 

Hyunjin gasps. “But  _ you _ said ice creams are suitable for all weather.”

 

Seungmin snorts and then yawns into his hand as he sits up on the bed, gathering the blanket to cover himself up from the cold. Looking at the clock, it’s already past 10– not as early as he thought it still was. “We can get them tomorrow then.”

 

“But tomorrow is not my birthday anymore,” Hyunjin mumbles. Seungmin grins at how cute Hyunjin is, getting up from the bed with the blanket still covering him to look at the rain from the door to the balcony. He pulls the curtain open and the first thing his eyes land on is the figure standing by the window of the room on the upper floor of the Hwangs’ residence– Hyunjin. Hyunjin seems to notice him, too, by the way he’s waving his hand at Seungmin.

 

“You have a bird’s nest on your head, Minnie.”

 

“Okay but who’s going to tell Jinnie he has a bird’s nest on his head too?” Hyunjin’s laughter rings through the receiver, waking Seungmin even more and making the smile appears on his face. He can see Hyunjin trying to fix his hair in useless attempt, while Seungmin himself doesn’t even bother to comb his. He knows it won’t make a difference. “It’s still too early to go out and get ice creams. Let’s wait it out a little bit. Maybe the rain will subside in the afternoon.”

 

“Well, it better!” Hyunjin says. “We’re getting the ice creams no matter what.”

 

“Didn’t peg you for an ice cream enthusiast,” Seungmin replies in amusement.

 

“It’s not...that,” Hyunjin trails off, mumbling again when he says “It’s my birthday and I want to spend some time with you.”

 

“Even though we already are spending so much time together these days, you still want to see me?” Seungmin says jokingly. He doesn’t know why with Hyunjin, the teasing comes so easily to him.

 

“I mean, yeah? I guess you can say instead of being an ice cream enthusiast, me, Hwang Hyunjin is actually a whole Kim Seungmin enthusiast.”

 

Seungmin can feel the heat quickly rising up his nape all the way to his face and the tips of ears, a weird feeling whirling in his stomach. He wasn’t expecting such answers from Hyunjin, and neither does the “Stop being so cute!” that blurt out of his own mouth right after that. By the time his mind registered what he said, it’s already too late to take it back.

 

With the rain pouring down more heavily now blurring the vision, Seungmin can’t see the grin on Hyunjin’s face _but_ he hears the smile in his voice clearly. “Like, if you were in an idol group, you’d be my bias. I’d probably open a fansite for you and follow you everywhere. That’s how much I like you.”

 

Seungmin doubts Hyunjin can see him narrowing his eyes at Hyunjin either but he does it anyway trying to appear unamused by what Hyunjin said when in fact, his heart is beating so fast in his chest. “Shut up,” he yanks the curtain closed and presses his free hand on his warm cheek, listening to Hyunjin laughing again. Damn Hyunjin and his pretty face and cute laugh and bright smile and soothing voice and warm presence and...and…

 

_ Oh no. _

 

“Where’d you go!”

 

“I’m going to catch up on more sleep,” Seungmin lies. “Bye.”

 

“Let’s hope it’ll stop raining later.”

 

“Okay, bye,” Seungmin insists and actually ends the call this time. He throws the phone on the bed first and then himself next, staring unseeing ahead of him. He isn’t quite sure how long he stayed like that, mentally berating himself for feeling like this and asking his heart to stop beating so damn hard,  _ goddamn it _ ,  _ Hyunjin is a friend you idiot. _

 

Eventually Seungmin gets up from the bed and walks to the bathroom. He takes a long, warm bath and spends more time thinking there, only stepping out when the water turns cold.

  
  
  
  
  


It rains the whole morning and continues through afternoon. The rain pours heavily, drowning the sound from the television but Seungmin doesn’t bother increasing the volume. His mom doesn’t ask him to do so either so the both of them watch the movie as it is, opting to read the subtitles instead.

 

“I think it’s going to rain all afternoon, too,” his mom comments, head turned towards the window. “Ah, I have laundry to do though. Guess I’ll have to do them tomorrow.”

 

“Just take a rest today,” Seungmin says distractedly, taking his phone into his hand when it lights up with new notifications.

  
  
  


**hhj203**

The rain is so determined to sabotage our date u_u

 

What date?

 

**hhj203**

Alahskss

Our ice cream date

 

Lol

Date he says

 

**hhj203**

Is it not??

 

Can’t go now.

Looks like we have to postpone it

 

**hhj203**

u_u

You know what?

Screw the rain

 

Language

 

**hhj203**

:p

Umm do you have ice creams at home?

 

Why?~

 

**hhj203**

Cause i’m coming over

  
  
  


“Is it okay if Hyunjin comes over?” Seungmin asks abruptly, startling his mom who has her attention back on the movie. She glances at the window again and then at Seungmin.

 

“Of course, sweetie. But it’s raining heavily outside if he’s going to walk here.”

 

“You’re right,” Seungmin contemplates, chewing on his lower lip lightly.

  
  
  


But it’s raining…

 

**hhj203**

I don’t know if you know about this

But

They have this thing called umbrellas?

They shelter you from the rain apparently

  
  


Seungmin laughs at his phone and gets up. “He’s coming,” he lets his mom know.

 

“Okay. Go boil some water so I can make hot drinks for you guys.

 

Seungmin nods his head and walks to the kitchen to do as she says.

  
  
  


Okay. wear something warm

 

**hhj203**

:D

See you soon!

 

Be careful!

  
  
  


Seungmin sends the last text and after setting the water to boil, he walks to the front door to unlock and pull it open. Remnants of winter’s cold air immediately hits his face, so Seungmin puts his hoodie on to cover his head and shoves his hands into the pockets. Then he steps outside to crane his neck at the street to look for Hyunjin.

 

Not long after, Seungmin sees the red umbrella coming from the Hwangs’ residence. He watches with subdued worry because the rain is really no joke, but halfway through Hyunjin’s walk to their home, he spots Seungmin standing and waiting for him at the entrance door and stops on his tracks.

 

“What are you doing?” Seungmin widens his eyes. He doubts Hyunjin heard him so asks him to hurry up using body language- which really just consists of him waving urgently at Hyunjin to come over. He thinks he sees Hyunjin grinning before he makes a run for the gate, mouth open in a silent scream. The sight makes Seungmin grin too and makes him does these little jumps, both eager and impatient for Hyunjin to finally get to the safety and warmth of their home.

 

The gate closes with a bang when Hyunjin carelessly pushes it shut, but neither of them really cared. From this proximity now, Seungmin can hear when Hyunjin screams as he rushes towards Seungmin.

 

“Oh my god. It’s so cold,” Hyunjin immediately drops the umbrella onto the ground and throws himself into Seungmin’s welcoming arms, causing them to stagger backward into the house from the impact. Luckily, Seungmin manages to find his balance by tightening his arms around Hyunjin, and then laughs. Hyunjin is warm against him, the same fresh aquatic scent greets his sense, along with the smell of the rain. It’s a comforting scent and Seungmin allows himself to enjoy this, to linger in the hug until Hyunjin is the one to pull away first. Seungmin misses the warmth immediately but doesn’t say anything. He knows why Hyunjin pulls away when he bows and greets someone– Seungmin’s mom.

 

“Good afternoon! Sorry to bother, but I’m here to eat all your ice creams,” Hyunjin says cheekily.

 

“Ice creams?” Seungmin’s mom raises her eyebrows in amusement and then beckons them to follow her to the kitchen. “In this kind of weather? You’re exactly like Seungmin.”

 

Hyunjin grins at that, slipping his shoes off and draping his arm around Seungmin’s shoulders, pulling Seungmin to walk with him after they close the door. “I learned it from Seungmin.”

 

“Please,” Seungmin rolls his eyes, lightly pushing Hyunjin away but that only makes Hyunjin pulls him closer.

 

“Well, today’s your lucky day. Seungmin’s brother just stocked up the ice creams last night.”

 

“He did?’ Seungmin asks in surprise. He hadn’t known of that. He leaves Hyunjin to go for the fridge and takes a look at the freezer, only to find that in fact there are tubes of ice creams filling up the whole space. “Wow.”

 

“Wow,” Hyunjin echoes, already standing by Seungmin’s side. “Lots of different flavors too!” he exclaims in awe. “Okay that’s it. I’m moving in.”

 

Seungmin’s mom laughs, taking out three mugs from the cupboard. “Moving in for the ice creams?”

 

“And your chicken curry.”

 

“And our Seungminnie too?” she teases.

 

“Mom!” Seungmin presses in disapproval. Hyunjin laughs but the shade of pink dusting his cheeks does not go unnoticed by Seungmin.

 

“Okay, okay,” she laughs it off. “Does Hyunjin want tea? Or coffee? Hot chocolate maybe?”

 

“Hot chocolate!” both Hyunjin and Seungmin answer at the same time. “I want hot chocolate. With cream and marshmallows,” Seungmin says.

 

Hyunjin gasps. “That sounds amazing. I want it too.”

 

“Okay kiddos, two hot chocolates with cream and marshmallows coming right up,” she says with a laugh.

  
  
  
  
  


They retreat to Seungmin’s room with a tray of two mugs of hot chocolates, a bowl of ice cream with different flavors topped with sprinkles and cereals (“Don’t judge me. It’s good.” “I wasn’t going to say anything, Minnie.” A chuckle. A scrunch of the nose and Hyunjin pinching Seungmin’s cheek.). Hyunjin settles the tray down in front of the balcony door where they can watch the rain pouring down on the neighborhood. Seungmin takes his pillows and cushions, passing them to Hyunjin so they can sit comfortably on the floor.

 

“Is it ever going to stop raining today?” Hyunjin says, eyeing the scenery in front of them.

 

Looking at the dark, heavy clouds, Seungmin honestly doesn’t think it will. “Doubt it. Do you have to go somewhere later?” Seungmin takes one of the spoons and scoops the ice cream, making sure to get lots of sprinkles and cereals on. He loves how the ice cream melts in his mouth and how crunchy the cereals are when he bites on them.

 

“Dinner with my family later. Chansung hyung is treating us for my birthday.”

 

“Sounds fun,” Seungmin spoons the ice cream again. He’s about to eat it when his eyes catch Hyunjin opening his mouth, asking to be fed. He moves the spoon closer to Hyunjin’s mouth but before Hyunjin can eat it, Seungmin quickly guides the spoon back to his mouth and eats the ice cream, sending an innocent look at Hyunjin’s way.

 

“You,” Hyunjin narrows his eyes playfully. “Don’t be mean to the birthday boy.”

 

“You’re gonna use that birthday boy card all day, huh?”

 

“Come on, just feed me. My hands are full.”

 

Seungmin glances down at Hyunjin’s free hands and then stares boringly into Hyunjin’s eyes. “Full with what, exactly?”

 

“The pillow.”

 

“...It’s ridiculous of how ridiculous you are,” Seungmin shakes his head, but he’s already scooping the ice cream again. “Here you go, your highness.” There’s a hint of victorious smile on Hyunjin’s face when Seungmin feeds the ice cream to him.

 

“Thank you. Ahh, I can’t wait to meet Chanjin again,” he sighs dreamily.

 

“Oh send me pictures later! Of Chanjin I mean, not you,” he quickly adds when Hyunjin smirks at him.

 

“Awww and here I thought you wanted more selcas of me.”

 

“Two is enough, please. Don’t use up all of my phone’s memory.”

 

“Shut up,” Hyunjin laughs. He takes his spoon to eat the ice cream. They stay eating the ice cream like that in silence for a while, before Hyunjin says something again. “Can we put some music on?”

 

“Hm? Yeah sure.” Seungmin connects his phone to the speaker via bluetooth and scrolls down his playlist. “Do you like Day6?”

 

“Day6?” Hyunjin repeats after Seungmin. Seungmin nods his head. “Um don’t think I’ve heard of them before.”

 

Seungmin stops eating and scrolling down his playlist to widen his eyes at Hyunjin in disbelief. “Tell me you’re joking.”

 

“I’m…not?” Hyunjin answers hesitantly.

 

“...Have you been living under a rock or something? Hwang Hyunjin, I’ll be introducing you the best band of all time and you,” he clicks on his Day6’s playlist, putting down his phone when a song plays on the speaker. “can thank me later.”

 

“O...kay?” There’s amusement glinting in Hyunjin’s eyes with a mix of confusion. He tries to listen to the song as much as he can while still eating the ice cream. Seungmin hums along to the song playing– the song is called  _ Freely _ , taking the mug of hot chocolate to give it a sip. It’s not so hot anymore and not really cold– just warm enough for his tongue. “This is a good song,” Hyunjin comments.

 

“Right?” Seungmin agrees with a smile. Listening to Day6 has never failed to lift his mood up before and probably will stay like that. Like right now, he’s feeling lighter and happier despite the gloomy weather outside. “All of their songs are good, Jinnie. Like, I’m not even being biased here. They don’t even have one bad song.”

 

“Yeah? What’s your favorite song?”

 

“You’re actually asking me to pick  _ a _ favorite song?” Seungmin gasps. “Didn’t you hear what I just said?  _ All  _ of their songs are good. I don’t have a favorite. All of them are my favorite.”

 

“Eyy,” Hyunjin disagrees. “There has to be one song you listen to the most.”

 

“No. No such thing. I listen to the playlist without skipping any song. That’s how good they are.”

 

Hyunjin laughs. “ _ But _ if you can only choose one, and I mean  _ only one _ Day6’s song to listen to for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?”

 

“Why are you doing this to me?” Seungmin whines. “Your question is too cruel. Don’t make me pick which one of my children I like the most, you meanie.”

 

“And you called  _ me _ the ridiculous one?” Hyunjin bursts out laughing again. “It’s just a question, Minnie.”

 

“Fine,” Seungmin says grudgingly. He puts the mug down and considers all of Day6’s songs. Hyunjin waits patiently, sipping on his drink and alternately switching from looking at Seungmin and the rain outside. “I like their more upbeat songs, but the slower ones are nice too,” he starts. Hyunjin flits his gaze at Seungmin but doesn’t say anything. “This song is called  _ Hi, Hello _ . I like listening to this kind of song in this kind of weather. They also have this song called  _ I need somebody _ . It’s sad but also really good. A little angsty but so relatable. I like  _ Better Better  _ too. But I also love  _ I loved you _ . And–,” Seungmin glances at Hyunjin grinning at him. “You know what. I can’t do this. I can’t choose,” he throws his hands up in surrender. “I give up. It’s impossible. I’d rather die than choose  _ one  _ Day6’s song to live with for the rest of my life.”

 

“You’re…” Hyunjin tries to look for word to say. “You’re impossibly cute, Kim Seungmin.”

 

Seungmin’s heard that from Hyunjin a lot of times before but it still makes him blush the same. “I don’t want to be cute. I’m not cute,” Seungmin mumbles, drinking his hot chocolate again.

 

“But you’re my cutie,” Hyunjin winks. Seungmin almost choked on his drink.

 

“Shut up.” Seungmin throws a small cushion at Hyunjin, who casually catches it into his arms.

 

“Hey.”

 

“What now?”

 

“Play the guitar for me,” Hyunjin says softly, with an equally soft smile on his face as he hugs the cushion close to his chest. Seungmin spends the first few minutes just staring at Hyunjin, at how dark the room is because of the rain outside but Hyunjin still manages to stand out prettily, looking so gorgeous with that smile on his face. In the background,  _ I like you  _ starts playing, snapping Seungmin off from his stare and his thoughts.

 

“Okay, I guess,” Seungmin clears his throat, looking away and standing up to get his guitar that he had put in the corner of the room. “But I’m telling you now, I’m not really good at it, so,” he shrugs. Once he has retrieved the guitar, he sits back down and tune the strings.

 

“I’m sure you’re a lot better than you think you are,” Hyunjin encourages. Seungmin doesn’t dare to lift his head up to look at Hyunjin, not wanting him to notice the blush on his face and the nerves he’s feeling from having to play the guitar with an audience. Not even Wonpil nor his mom have seen him playing the guitar before as he usually locks himself up in his room when he’s playing. He’s not that bad but not really that good either and he’s worried of what Hyunjin will think of him after.

 

Seungmin abandons the thought, deciding to just do this and get it done with sooner. He finds comfort in the sound of the rain, and so focuses on that for a bit as he scrolls down his playlist to look for a particular song. When he finds it, Seungmin presses play and moves his fingers on the fretboard. It’s a song his fingers are most familiar with, having played it countless of times before.

 

It starts with the sound of the guitar Seungmin is playing accompanying the sound of keyboard from the song. It goes on like that for the first minute but after the first chorus, Seungmin is absorbed into the song, humming the lyrics with his eyes closed until he’s singing along to the song. The song has brought him comfort on many days, nights when the sleep refused to come to him, times when he’s scared and doubtful of himself. He relates the song to his mom and brother, and listening to if often gives him strength when he needs it the most.

 

The song is over before he knows it, the playlist already moving on to a different song. When Seungmin opens his eyes, it’s to Hyunjin looking at him with a warm gaze, a small smile on his lips. He doesn’t know what to make out of that look, so he kind of just stares back at Hyunjin hoping he’d be the first to break the silence.

 

And he does. “See? You’re good at it,” Hyunjin says, leaning his cheek on his palm. “At playing the guitar  _ and  _ singing. You have a great voice.”

 

“T-Thanks,” Seungmin suddenly feels shy when he realizes he just played the guitar and sang in front of Hyunjin. In an attempt to mask his embarrassment, Seungmin looks away and strums the strings loudly. “Oh, I haven’t properly learned this song yet,” he tries to change the subject.

 

“What song is this?” Hyunjin asks. “This one is nice, too.”

 

“This one is called  _ I would _ .”

 

“It’s a bit sad though,” Hyunjin says after hearing the lyrics. “Nice, but sad.” Seungmin nods in agreement. “I will have to look up for their songs later on.”

 

That makes Seungmin grins. “They’re good, aren’t they? Told you~”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Hyunjin chuckles, finishing his drink. “Can I use your blanket? It’s getting kinda cold.”

 

“Suit yourself. Do you want more warm drink?”

 

“Nah, it’s fine.” Hyunjin stands up from the floor to get the blanket on Seungmin’s bed. Seungmin is trying to find the chords on the guitar from the song currently playing, but then suddenly a blanket is dropped down on him, covering his head. “Hey!” Seungmin pulls the blanket off and looks up at the giggling Hyunjin.

 

“Hi,” Seungmin’s eyes follow Hyunjin’s quick movement of sitting on his heels, close to where Seungmin is. He takes back the blanket and loosely wraps it around himself. Seungmin only blinks at Hyunjin, knowing he’s up to something but doesn’t want to ask. “Can I move closer?”  _ There it is. _

 

“How close is close we’re talking about here?”

 

“Um,” Hyunjin moves even closer and sits behind Seungmin, careful arms looping around Seungmin’s middle and leaning forward on him. “This close?”

 

Seungmin tenses slightly, feeling his heartbeat picking up and fearing Hyunjin would hear it too, but doesn’t really move or push Hyunjin away. Hyunjin has always been a tactile person. Seungmin thought he’s already used to it by now but right now...he isn’t so sure anymore.  _ This _ is new, so maybe he’s just surprised by the action that they have never done before, he muses to himself. It’s not necessarily bad, but...it does make Seungmin question what this all means.

 

“Is this okay?” he hears Hyunjin asks. “I can move if you’re uncomfortable with this.”

 

“No,” Seungmin quickly answers him. “It’s okay. It’s– it’s nice. You’re warm.” Seungmin can feel not only himself relaxing, but Hyunjin as well.

 

“Good,” Hyunjin says, relief in his voice. “I think this is nice, too.  _ You _ ’re warm.”

 

Seungmin only hums back at Hyunjin, not trusting his voice at this point. He lets Hyunjin hugs him like that, feeling Hyunjin pressing his forehead on Seungmin’s back. His fingers absently play with the guitar, his mind flying off somewhere else. “You okay?” Seungmin tries to look at Hyunjin from over his shoulder. The weight lifts up from his back and he sees Hyunjin peeking at him from over his shoulder, surprising him a little.

 

“Yeah, I’m okay. Why?”

 

“Just making sure,” Seungmin turns to look ahead of him again. The rain mercilessly pours down, washing the neighborhood below it. The sounds complement well with the music playing, making Seungmin feels calm. Focusing on the sight of the rain is enough to make him feel cold, so he puts his guitar away and says “Share the blanket.”

 

They shift around a little bit, trying to find a comfortable position for the both of them. Hyunjin ends up leaning on the bed behind him, with Seungmin settled in between Hyunjin’s legs. He leans back against Hyunjin’s chest, feeling it rise and fall steadily. He relaxes completely against Hyunjin, humming in content when Hyunjin wraps the blanket around them and when Hyunjin’s arms find their way back around his waist. It’s nice.  _ Really _ nice. Seungmin doesn’t know if this is what friends do with each other, but maybe with Hyunjin, he doesn’t have to conform to the norms, doesn’t have to think too much of anything and just accept them as they are, doesn’t have to feel afraid.

 

So Seungmin snuggles closer, silence settling in between them, breathing and heartbeats synchronizing with each other’s. Hyunjin’s scent wafts into his sense, further soothing Seungmin down. He braves himself and rests his arms atop of Hyunjin’s, his hand finding the other’s and slotting his fingers in between Hyunjin’s. He feels Hyunjin pressing his nose and lips into his hair, feels the light curve of his lips, feels how oddly content he is right now.

 

Seungmin smiles and tightens his hold on Hyunjin’s hand. In return, Hyunjin pulls him closer, and Seungmin lets him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you all will have a great day <3
> 
> Also, if you have twitter, come talk and scream over seungjin with me at @seungjinstar!! <3333


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sincerely apologize for making you all wait for updates, and also thank you for your patience, support and understanding! <3
> 
> chapter may contain errors and typos lol. Self-edited and hence i might have overlooked lots of mistakes after the 1726th time reading the same thing orz

Seungmin decides he likes this place- the 5-storey art supply and stationery building that he had spotted on his morning out with Hyunjin previously. Not only do they have interesting things sold inside, they’re also playing Day6 in the store, much to Seungmin's delight. He’d only been here today and already, he can tell it’s going to be one of his favorite stores.

 

Seungmin had come here to get new stationery for college but gets distracted by the amount of things they have in the store. He scans the rows of colorful notebooks with a sparkle in his eyes, and then at the immense amount of stickers filling up another long row on the opposite side of the aisle.  _ Stationery heaven _ , he mutters to himself, taking a quick snap of the aisle to send to Hyunjin without any context and just a crying emoji. They do this all the time now, sending random pictures and texts to each other. Seungmin likes it, likes the fact that he can send literally anything to Hyunjin and not having to worry about bothering the said guy because neither of them mind it when one of them text the other. Even though Hyunjin will reply almost always immediately, in the case that he couldn’t, he will reply when he has the time.

 

When Seungmin doesn’t receive any reply, he locks his phone and pockets it, turning around a corner of the shelve and accidentally bumping into someone.

 

“Sorry!” They say at the same time, but hearing the familiar voice, Seungmin looks up and mirrors the grin on the other guy’s face.

 

“Hyung!” Jeongin greets, braces on display with how much he’s grinning. He’s wearing a yellow school blazer and carrying a backpack, his hand holding different color pens and highlighters.

 

“Did you just get back from school?” Seungmin asks conversationally. Jeongin nods his head.

 

“I came here to get some new pens and book,” he says. “Have you gotten all you need?”

 

“Umm, no actually,” Seungmin grins again. “I was just on my way to get the shopping basket,” he continues, walking towards where the shopping baskets are. Jeongin turns to follow him closely behind.

 

“What, are you planning on buying a lot?” Jeongin asks. “...You’re not a stationery hoarder, are you?”

 

Seungmin laughs and drops his things into the shopping basket before picking it up. “And if I were?”

 

“Then I’ve found my soulmate!” Jeongin exclaims with a bright smile, arm curled around Seungmin’s.

 

“Soulmate?” Seungmin chuckles. “You’re quite cute.”

 

“Excuse me, I am  _ the _ cutest. Hyunjin hyung is quite cute, too, though, right?”

 

“Yeah, he is,” Seungmin answers without giving it much thought, turning red when he finally realizes what he said and at Jeongin giving him a knowing grin. He’s thankful, however, when Jeongin doesn’t tease him more about it.

 

“I love stationery,” he says instead. “The cute notebooks, colorful pens, pastel highlighters, the– stickers!” he gestures his hand at the rows of stickers. “You can never have enough of them.”

 

“I wouldn’t have guessed you are into them.”

 

“I could say the same thing about you, hyung~” Jeongin unlinks his arm with Seungmin so he can take a closer look at the sticker sets hanging on the shelves, while Seungmin goes to look at the notebooks. He has a couple (or more) unused notebooks at home, but one can never have too many notebooks. If he gets one (or two) new notebook, there’s a possibility of him not using it but it doesn’t matter. It could come in handy someday, is what Seungmin would always say to himself to justify the purchase. He snorts to himself.

 

“Have you been to the fourth floor yet?”

 

“Nope,” answers Seungmin. He picks an A5-size notebook with colorful geometric shapes on the cover after contemplating which ones he should get. “What do they have on the fourth floor?”

 

“The good stuff,” Jeongin goes to stand beside Seungmin again, wiggling his eyebrows. “The 2,000 won corner.”

 

Seungmin’s eyes widen in interest at this. “Then why are we still here? Come on!” He grabs Jeongin’s arm to pull him to the escalator leading up to the fourth floor, causing the younger guy to laugh but he doesn’t stop Seungmin from dragging him.

  
  
  
  
  


“The fourth floor is the evil floor,” Seungmin concludes as he and Jeongin walk out of the building carrying a full bag each in their hand. They’re immediately greeted by the cold breeze that causes Seungmin to shiver a little, but he doesn’t mind it much, peeking at the things inside the bag instead. “I’m not going to buy anymore stationery for the next two months or so.”

 

Jeongin snorts. “That’s what they all say, isn’t it. You’ll probably be back there in a week tops.”

 

“You have such weak faith in me, Jeonginnie.”

 

“Just wait and see,” Jeongin playfully sticks his tongue out. “Hyung, do you want to get drinks together?”

 

“Yeah, sure.”

 

The grin on Jeongin’s face is just as bright as it usually is, but there’s something else hinted in the way his lips curled upwards, in the way his eyes are glinting at something Seungmin isn’t sure what. He shrugs it off, not wanting to think too much about it. Jeongin leads the way to a café and Seungmin follows him.

  
  
  
  
  


The café is small but warm and cozy. There are not many customers when Seungmin and Jeongin enter the place- the line is short, with a few people standing near the pick-up station to wait for their drink for- what Seungmin assumes- a takeaway instead of staying in the café. Seungmin looks up at the menu above the counter, written in colorful chalks on a blackboard.

 

“What are you getting?” Seungmin asks as he turns to look at Jeongin at his side.

 

“Matcha ice blended,” Jeongin answers distractedly, looking around the café for something (or someone?). Seungmin blinks at his action and looks around as well.

 

“Are we looking for someone?”

 

“Huh? Oh, no,” Jeongin startles and then waves his hand a no immediately. “I was just looking for which table to take.” Seungmin accepts it easily without anymore questions. “What are you ordering, hyung?”

 

“Hmm. I’ll take the chocolate hazelnut latte.”

 

“Got it! Take a seat hyung, I’ll order the drinks. It’s on me!”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Yes, yes. Now go. Get that table near the window,” Jeongin leans closer to Seungmin and points at a vacant table next to the window. “I need a place with good lighting to take pictures of my stationery haul.”

 

Seungmin looks at Jeongin strangely but he isn’t going to question that either. He takes a seat on the cushioned bench, facing away from the glass window. He fishes his phone out to check for any new messages but shrugs when he sees there isn’t any.

 

“Clear the table please,” is what Jeongin says as soon as he reaches the table after ordering. He puts his backpack and the buzzer on a chair before taking out the stationery he’d just bought with Seungmin.

 

“...Is this really necessary?” Seungmin questions. He watches Jeongin arranging the things on the table, half-curious and half-amused at the detailed precision. 

 

“Of course! For the sake of my studygram’s aesthetic,” Jeongin says.

 

“Your what?” Seungmin asks in confusion, having not heard of the word before. But Jeongin’s only focused on taking dozens of pictures from different angles, even resorting to ‘shoo’ Seungmin away from covering the sunlight. In the end, Seungmin moves to a different table.

 

Seungmin’s putting on a new case for his phone that he’d just bought with Jeongin when the buzzer lights up. “Oh our drinks are ready.”

 

“I’ll get them,” Seungmin offers, taking the vibrating buzzer into his hand and walking to the pick-up station. He slides it on the counter and grabs the tray of drinks, thanking the person without looking up at them.

 

“Seungminnie!” Seungmin finally lifts his head up and is surprised to see Hyunjin on the other side of the counter, wearing a white shirt, black pants and a dark blue apron around his waist.

 

“Jinnie? Do you work here?” Seungmin asks to make sure, putting the drinks back down on the counter so he can talk more with Hyunjin. Hyunjin wipes his hands on his apron and nods his head enthusiastically, and then leans his arms on the counter.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“Oh, I went to get some things for college and met Jeongin there. Then we decided to get some drinks. He brought me here.”

 

“Jeongin?” Hyunjin cocks his head to the side and then searches for Jeongin. It doesn’t take long for him to spot Jeongin, what with the younger guy waving an eager hand at him from their table. Right about then, the bell chimes, indicating the arrival of new customer. “Oh, I have to take this order. My friend is on a break.”

 

“Oh yeah, of course,” Seungmin nods. He takes the tray with their drinks and walks back to their table as Hyunjin goes to attend the new customer. “I didn’t know Hyunjin works here,” he says, settling the tray on the now clear table and briefly looking at Hyunjin from over his shoulder.

 

“I knew,” Jeongin casually says. He sticks a straw on his matcha ice blended and happily drinks it. “That’s why I brought you here.”

 

“That’s why you brought me here,” Seungmin repeats after him, with a tone asking for further explanation but Jeongin only nods his head vaguely so Seungmin has to ask, “Why?”

 

“Just cause,” Jeongin shrugs. “Just thought you both would want to see each other.”

 

Seungmin pinks at that, and sips on his warm drink, murmuring “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

“Sure you don’t,” Jeongin snickers. For few minutes, silence takes over the table, with Seungmin enjoying his drink and Jeongin tapping on something on his phone. Then he leans his hand down to show what’s on his phone to Seungmin. “What do you think?”

 

Seungmin tilts his head to look at the screen showing a picture of the so-called stationery haul. A filter has been added to add brightness as well as to bring out the softness of the picture, and Seungmin is slightly at awe at how easy it is to produce pretty pictures just with a few taps on apps in the phone. “It’s really pretty!”

 

Jeongin grins. “Thank you. Then I’ll post this as it is,” he says, pulling the phone back to his view and tapping on it some more. “Done.” “Oh, you’ve put it on!” Jeongin points at Seungmin’s new phone case when he puts his phone on the table.

 

“Yeah. It turns out really cute, huh?” Seungmin rubs his finger on the said phone case. It’s pink with a rabbit cartoon character on it, bought on an impulse just now. He has no regrets though because like he said, it’s cute and only cost him 2,000 won; it was a real bargain.

 

“It is! I should put on mine, too,” Jeongin says, taking out a phone case from the bag. He slips off his old phone case and puts on the new one. It’s almost similar to Seungmin’s- same color and same cartoon character but with slightly different drawing. “Nice, now we have couple phone cases,” he laughs jokingly, causing Seungmin to laugh, too.

 

“Let me take a picture of you with it,” Seungmin suggests, to which Jeongin agrees immediately. Jeongin holds on the phone and puts his hand up, covering half his face with it and grinning at the camera. After Seungmin snaps a picture or two, Jeongin offers to take one for Seungmin as well. He also snaps a few more pictures- of the café and their drinks, and then uses his ipad to take a picture of their hands holding their phones on the table, showing off the new phone cases. Seungmin finds it cute that Jeongin likes to take these kind of pictures. He is somehow similar to Hyunjin, in a way or another.

 

They share the pictures through their kakaotalk, laughing and smiling at some of the outcome of their selcas. Jeongin is busy tapping away on his phone again and when Seungmin takes a peek, he finds out Jeongin is editing them.

 

“Hyung, what’s your instagram account?” Jeongin asks. “I’ll tag you in the photos.”

 

“Instagram?” Seungmin asks back. “Umm. I don’t have one.”

 

Jeongin gasps dramatically. “You don’t have one? In this economy?!”

 

Seungmin doesn’t understand what Jeongin’s saying sometimes (kids these days…) but he finds it amusing enough to burst out laughing. He lets Jeongin to take his phone, lets him download this instagram app and register an account for him, all the while thinking how this is oddly familiar and then realizing Hyunjin’s done the same for him before with the kakaotalk app. It makes him smile reminiscing back to that day.

 

“I’m setting your username to ‘MinnieKim’, is that okay?”

 

“Yeah, I guess,” Seungmin shrugs. He figures he can change it later if he needs to.

 

“Done,” Jeongin hands the phone back to Seungmin. Looking at the newly set up account, he only has one follower and is following only two accounts- both are Jeongin’s; one is his personal account and the other one is full with photo spreads of stationery and study notes. Jeongin also uses a selca of them both as Seungmin’s user pic, which Seungmin doesn’t really mind.

 

Just as Seungmin clicks on the notifications of tagged photos of him, Hyunjin slumps down on the space next to him, arm around Seungmin’s shoulders to lean closer so he can see what Seungmin is looking at, startling Seungmin a bit. “What are you do- oh! You have instagram?”

 

“Yeah, Jeonginnie made one for me.”

 

“ _ Jeonginnie _ ,” Hyunjin raises his eyebrow and shifts his train of sight to Jeongin briefly. Jeongin gives an innocent smile and waves his hand at Hyunjin. “Anyway, follow me too!” Hyunjin shamelessly grabs Seungmin’s phone. Seungmin watches Hyunjin’s eyebrows slowly furrowing deeper and deeper as he taps on the screen, taking a closer look at the user pic and sliding the photo sets Seungmin was tagged in. He turns the phone around to look at the case, and then at Jeongin’s.

 

“Aah, Seungminnie! Why do you have matching phone case with Jeongin?” Seungmin is not the only one taken aback by Hyunjin whining but Jeongin as well by the sound of him choking on his drink.

 

“Woah, I didn’t think it’d be  _ this _ serious,” Jeongin comments.

 

“Shut up, maknae. The adults are talking here,” Hyunjin snaps.

 

“...You’re only a year older than me.”

 

“ _ Shhh _ .”

 

“Okay, okay. Excuse me, I have to use the toilet,” Seungmin watches Jeongin stands up from his seat and walks away from the table but moves his gaze back to Hyunjin when the said guy calls for him. He still has his arm around Seungmin’s shoulders.

 

“Why are you suddenly so chummy with Jeongin?” Hyunjin asks, jutting his lower lip out.

 

“Well, Jeongin is nice...and he’s so cute! He’s the only one younger than me, too, so there’s this....instinct of wanting to protect him,” Seungmin replies.

 

Now Hyunjin is giving him the puppy eyes. Oh no.

 

“You think he’s cute?”

 

Seungmin hesitantly nods his head. “You don’t like that?” he asks but Hyunjin doesn’t answer. His silence makes Seungmin antsy, thoughts beginning to crowd his mind. Afterall, Jeongin is Hyunjin’s friend and they’re really close with each other. Maybe, Hyunjin thinks Seungmin will ruin their friendship and take Jeongin away from him. Seungmin knows deep inside of him, that thought is ridiculous, but...he can’t really be sure. Not wanting to risk upsetting Hyunjin, he says: “I’m sorry...promise I won’t take him away from you…”

 

Hyunjin clearly wasn’t expecting that answer as he backs away in shock, his eyebrows shot up. “What?” he says. “No, no! I-”

 

Seungmin fiddles with his fingers and looks at Hyunjin nervously.

 

“Ahh,” Hyunjin scratches his nape sheepishly. “That’s not what I meant. You-. Ahh,” Hyunjin runs his fingers through his hair. Seungmin’s heart may or may not have skipped a beat at that gesture, a familiar warmth spreading on his cheeks. The warmth intensifies when Hyunjin adds: “It’s just that- I. I knew you first. I don’t want Jeongin to take  _ you _ away from  _ me. _ ”

 

“Oh…”

 

“I don’t want to be replaced by him!”

 

Seungmin lets out a shaky laughter, relieved and endeared at the same time. Hyunjin is just ridiculously cute sometimes _ ,  _ it’s almost too much for Seungmin and his poor heart.

 

“No one is replacing anyone, Jinnie. I love everyone, and all of you are precious to me.”

 

Hyunjin pouts. He opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by a loud voice from the counter: “Hey, Hwang Hyunjin! Get back here. It’s not your break time anymore!”

 

“Okay, okay!” Hyunjin answers back, pouting again. “I’ll get back to work then,” he mutters as he gets up.

 

“Wait,” Seungmin grabs Hyunjin’s hand and looks up at him. “You’re not mad at me, right?”

 

Hyunjin softens at that. “I could never be mad at you,” he says with a smile, patting Seungmin’s head lightly.

 

Seungmin smiles back. “What time does your shift end?”

 

“Hmm,” Hyunjin checks the time on his watch. “I still have 2 hours to go.”

 

“Can I wait for you? Then we can go home together.”

 

“Really?” Hyunjin beams. “But 2 hours is a long time to wait…”

 

“It’s okay. I’ll find something to do,” Seungmin assures. He could go back home now, but it’s not like he has anything to do anyway. He’d be bored at home and wouldn’t be able to exchange texts with Hyunjin since Hyunjin is busy with work. At least if he stayed at the café, he’d be able to see Hyunjin…

 

_ Uhm. Not creepy at all, Kim Seungmin. _

 

“Okay then. Let me know if you want to refill your drink. There are some books on the shelves if you want to read.”

 

“Okay. Go, go. Get back to work,” Seungmin squeezes Hyunjin’s hand and sends him off with a smile. Hyunjin meets Jeongin halfway and they childishly sticks their tongue out at each other, making Seungmin laugh.

 

Jeongin stays with Seungmin for another 30 minutes before excusing himself as he has cram school to attend to. Jeongin lets Seungmin borrow his book to read and they bid each other farewell.

 

Seungmin is so engrossed in the book that he doesn’t even realize Hyunjin’s shift has ended until he comes to sit with Seungmin again, placing a plastic cup on the table, immediately catching Seungmin’s attention on him.

 

“Oh, you’re done?” Seungmin closes the book and looks up at Hyunjin. He’s in his casual clothes now, a white t-shirt underneath his faux fur-lined parka, and faded jeans. It’s crazy how Hyunjin manages to look good all the time.

 

“Yeah. You’re ready to go?” Hyunjin smiles. Seungmin nods his head and they leave the café together with a cup of warm drinks in their hands.

 

It’s way colder outside now than it was few hours ago, no more source of warmth with the sun already setting in to give way for the moon to come out. Seungmin pulls up the zipper of his jacket, thankful that Hyunjin’s prepared the drink- honey lemon tea, for extra warmth.

 

“Do you want to get something to eat before we go home? A cheeseburger sounds really good right now…”

 

Seungmin chuckles. “Well then, let’s get Hyunjin his cheeseburger.”

  
  
  
  
  


They head to the nearby McDonald’s to get a simple dinner. The ground level is fully occupied with teenagers who had just finished classes, but luckily the second floor is more vacant and quiet. Seungmin and Hyunjin take their seats on the tall counter facing the window that overlooks the road’s intersection, the streets busy with cars and people using the zebra crossings. It’s a strangely mesmerizing sight to see all the people come and go from different sides. Hyunjin must have felt the same as he takes his camera out from his backpack to take a picture of people crossing the streets.

 

“Do you bring your camera everywhere?” Seungmin asks as he takes a bite on his cheeseburger. Hyunjin hums, an eye focused on the viewfinder and hand adjusting the lens. He snaps a picture and checks the preview on the screen.

 

“I bring at least one camera with me everywhere. When I remember to, I mean,” Hyunjin replies belatedly. He has his eye on the viewfinder again, waiting for the light for passersby to turn green so he can snap another picture of people using the zebra crossing.

 

“You never told me what is it that you like about photography.”

 

“Hmmwell. I have a lot of reasons why I love it. Like other forms of art, photography is a way to express myself. I like the challenge to get the perfect shot and the satisfaction that comes with it. Sometimes, I simply just like the idea of capturing a fleeting moment before it’s gone. Literally not even a single moment could be relived twice. I mean, of course it’s possible for it to happen again, or to recreate the moment, but it’ll never ever feel the same, you know what I’m saying?”

 

“I think so…”

 

“Besides, isn’t it amazing that dozens of people could be taking photos of the same subject and absolutely none of them would come out looking the same? The techniques and what the photographers want to express make the end result very unique. It fascinates me every single time,” Hyunjin chuckles in awe. Seungmin smiles and thinks it’s more fascinating for him to listen to Hyunjin talk about his love for photography so animatedly like this. The twinkle in his eyes when he talks about his passion is prettier than any of the stars Seungmin had seen before. Must be nice to do and have something you love so dearly…

 

“...can be interpreted in different ways-. Oh god, I’m talking too much, aren’t I?” Hyunjin laughs.

 

“Not at all,” Seungmin shakes his head with a smile. “I like hearing you talk about it.”

 

“Is that so?” Hyunjin takes a huge bite on the cheeseburger and then stuffs his mouth with the french fries. 

 

“Yes, that is so…” “Oh my god! Slow down. You’re gonna choke,” Seungmin chuckles. Hyunjin has the ketchup staining his lips and Seungmin doesn’t even hesitate reaching his finger to wipe it off. Hyunjin freezes from surprise, but the smile slowly appears on his face as he makes eye contact with Seungmin. “And you said I’m the messy eater?”

 

“But you are, though,” Hyunjin smirks, reaching his own finger to wipe a stain on the corner of Seungmin’s lips, catching Seungmin off guard and failing to stop the blush from forming on his cheeks. “Ah, we’re both messy eaters. What would we do without each other? With not having anyone to clean us?”

 

“Shut up,” Seungmin laughs, causing Hyunjin to laugh as well. It isn’t the first time Seungmin’s noticed how lovely Hyunjin’s laugh sound, how pretty his smile is, how contagious they both are. The sound of Hyunjin’s laughter makes Seungmin feel warm and happy, the sight of Hyunjin’s smile makes him feel calm and yet it makes his heart beats faster at the same time especially when the smile is directed at Seungmin, like Seungmin is the reason it’s there in the first place, like Seungmin makes him happy, too. It’s a weird but pleasant feeling. Seungmin hopes he can make Hyunjin smile all the time.

 

“You know what?”

 

“What?”

 

“We should take more pictures together, too.”

 

There had only been two other customers on the second floor when Seungmin and Hyunjin first arrived at the place, but when Seungmin turns to check on them again, he finds out the couple are no longer there, only leftovers of their meals left on the table.

 

“Okay,” Seungmin decides, turning his body back around to Hyunjin already aiming his camera at Seungmin and snapping a candid picture of the younger guy, all wide eyes and mouth paused mid-chew. “Hey!”

 

“What? It came out good,” Hyunjin grins as he checks the preview of the picture. Then he levels the viewfinder with his eye again. “Hold on, let me take more photos of you, please.”

 

“Why?” Seungmin asks, but doesn’t stop Hyunjin from taking more pictures of him, the shutter going off and on several times. Seungmin barely poses for Hyunjin, only looking at him while eating his food though he makes funny faces at him too. “Okay really now, are you ever going to stop taking pictures and actually finish your meal?”

 

“The meal can wait,” Hyunjin says, leaning on the counter to get a photo of Seungmin from a different angle.

 

“What are you doing?” Seungmin laughs in amusement, but also half shy that he’s the target of Hyunjin’s camera.

 

“Oh my god, don’t move. This is perfect,” Hyunjin blindly moves his tray away so he can sit on the counter and leans back against the glass. Seungmin rolls his eyes but decides to entertain Hyunjin anyway. He closes his eyes and smiles, making a V with his fingers. “Wow! Perfect! Cute! Amazing! Beautiful!” Hyunjin cheers on exaggeratingly. Seungmin tries to hold in his laughter but fails horribly and laughs into his hand. Hyunjin doesn’t stop taking the photos even when Seungmin tells him to, so Seungmin has to opt for different measures to get him to stop.

 

“Stop taking pictures of me, or I am going to tickle you,” Seungmin threatens emptily. “Hyunjin,” he presses when Hyunjin still doesn’t stop.  “Hwang Hyunjin,” Seungmin pokes Hyunjin’s side, who flinches back immediately but not enough to stop him. “Okay, you asked for it,” Seungmin dumps his half-eaten burger on the tray and stands up so he can attack Hyunjin on both of his sides.

 

“Seungmin!” Hyunjin half-screams, his laughter echoing in the place. He finally pulls down his camera to shield himself from Seungmin’s fingers, but Seungmin doesn’t stop tickling Hyunjin just because he can. “Stop! You’re going to get us kicked out and banned from entering this place again.”

 

“Okay, I’m only stopping because I genuinely like this place and would love to come back here again, and I don’t want to get banned from entering,” Seungmin grins. He rubs his hands on Hyunjin’s sides, who is breathless from laughing and is sagging against the glass behind him. “At least show me the pictures,” Seungmin says as he grabs Hyunjin’s wrist and pulls it up to see the previews on the camera. Hyunjin straightens up and leans forward, their heads close to each other’s as they look at the small screen together.

 

“The pictures will look even better after I edit them,” Hyunjin comments, finger pressing the button to change the pictures. It’s weird to see himself as the subject for the pictures, and Seungmin did not expect Hyunjin to snap  _ that _ much of them, but he has to admit the quality of the pictures- from the lighting and angle all the way down to the timing of when the pictures were taken- are good, as expected from Hyunjin.

 

“What are you going to do with them?” Seungmin lifts his head up to look at Hyunjin, the same time Hyunjin looks back down at the camera, as if startled he was caught staring.

 

“I’m going to keep them,” Hyunjin shrugs nonchalantly.

 

“For you to look at when you can’t see me?” Seungmin teases and gets an unexpected pinch on the cheek from Hyunjin. “What was that for?” Seungmin pouts and rubs his cheek.

 

“For being cheeky and cute!” Hyunjin hops down the counter and takes a proper seat on the stool again. Seungmin narrows his eyes at Hyunjin, sits down and pinches Hyunjin’s cheek lightly, letting his fingers stay there as he uses his other hand to grab the burger. “Yahhh,” Hyunjin tries to pull away but Seungmin refuses to let go. “What are you doing…!”

 

“Pinching you.”

 

“Why!”

 

“Why not? I thought people get pinched for being cute and cheeky,” Seungmin chews his food and blinks innocently at Hyunjin.

 

“Woah, aren’t you a petty little one. Owwww,” Hyunjin yelps when Seungmin pinches harder.

 

“You were saying?”

 

Hyunjin sputters an incredulous laugh. “Stop pinching me.”

 

“Stop being cheeky and cute then.”

 

“But I am not cheeky and definitely not cute.”

 

“Liars will get pinched too, you know?”

 

“Ahh, Kim Seungmin!” Seungmin actually takes pity on Hyunjin and lets his cheek go, but not before rubbing it gently. “My poor cheek,” Hyunjin touches his cheek and checks it through the vague reflection of the glass. “Look at how red it is now!”

 

“Stop being dramatic, it isn’t even that bad,” Seungmin says, but his eyes glance at Hyunjin’s cheek with concern, doing a double take when he notices the skin on Hyunjin’s cheek is indeed a little redder than the rest of his face. Seungmin wipes the grease on his hands clean with a napkin before cupping Hyunjin’s cheek. “Oh my god, did I pinch too hard?”

 

“Yes. Now you have to kiss it better,” Hyunjin deadpans. Seungmin isn’t sure if Hyunjin is being serious or not, his eyes glinting with mischief but they also look expectant and a tiny bit challenging. Of course there is no way Seungmin could kiss anyone in public (not even Hyunjin) even though it’s just a quick, harmless peck on the cheek, but...remembering they’re all alone on the second floor, Seungmin is contemplating it.

 

(He’s just feeling bad for pinching Hyunjin’s cheek until it turns red like this. That’s all. Yeap. Nothing else.)

 

Seungmin closes his mouth shut, ignoring his hesitance and before he loses his courage, Seungmin presses a kiss on his fingers, and then presses the said fingers on Hyunjin’s cheek. Then he watches. And waits.

 

_ God, that was cringey and embarrassing _ , Seungmin thinks to himself. But he doesn’t entertain the thought much– Hyunjin’s reaction is much more interesting for him to observe. Hyunjin’s mouth is slightly dropped open in surprise, like he hadn’t thought Seungmin would actually do it, eyes blinking furiously in disbelief.

 

Seungmin feels shy, but he can also feel the edges of his lips curling upwards (just slightly) when he sees the colors tinting Hyunjin’s face. “I don’t think it’s working.”

 

“W-what?”

 

“I don’t think  _ that _ made it better,” Seungmin rephrases. “It’s only making you even redder than before.”

 

It only takes a second for Hyunjin to react, his hands quickly finding his cheeks to feel them, half-attempt of covering them comes out futile. Hyunjin laughs sheepishly with crinkled eyes, and something akin to love and happiness bloom in Seungmin chest at the sight, at the reaction. Seungmin is pleased he has that effect on Hyunjin no matter how small it is, is delighted to discover this side of Hyunjin he has never seen (or noticed) before.

 

Seungmin wants to learn more about Hyunjin,  _ needs _ to know him better than he already does. If Hyunjin lets him, then Seungmin wants to open up and lets Hyunjin further into his life as well.

  
  
  
  
  


The bus ride home is relatively quieter than their dinner at McDonald's.

 

Seungmin offers the other half of his earpiece to Hyunjin, to which the guy gladly take and stuff into his ear. Together, they listen to the music playing on Seungmin’s ipod in comfortable silence. Seungmin knows Hyunjin is tired by the number of times he’d yawned into his hand, but he keeps himself awake by pointing at places outside with his finger through the window and telling brief information about them to Seungmin, his chin pressed on Seungmin’s shoulder. After a few more minutes, however, Hyunjin links his arm with Seungmin’s and snuggles his face on the crook of Seungmin’s neck, making himself comfortable there. Seungmin is surprised not at Hyunjin’s action but rather at the fact that he isn’t surprised  _ by _ the action itself. It’s odd, but at the same time, not really.

 

Hyunjin like this- tired and sleepy and snuggling to Seungmin- reminds Seungmin so much of Kkami when he’s tired and sleepy after eating and taking a walk. It brings a silly smile on Seungmin’s face, his hand patting Hyunjin’s thigh lightly. Traffic is a bit busy at this time of the night, and it’ll probably take them another half an hour or so to reach their stop, so Seungmin says: “Take a nap. I’ll wake you up later.”

 

Hyunjin only snuggles closer and dozes off almost immediately. Few minutes later, Seungmin takes his phone out from his backpack to check for any messages. There is one from his mom- a reply to his text informing her he’s with Hyunjin and that they were getting dinner together, and then there are also few notifications from the group chat. They are talking about random stuff as per usual, and earlier on Jeongin had shared Seungmin’s new instagram account in the group chat so now all of them are following Seungmin.

 

Seungmin takes his time exploring the new app, follows back all of his friends and checks their pages one by one. Some of them are active while some only post once in a while. Seungmin thinks it’s interesting to see how different and diverse their lives and interests are.

 

He clicks Hyunjin’s profile last, snorting at his username (JinnieHwang) and the fact that Jeongin probably copied it when making Seungmin’s account (on purpose or not, Seungmin doesn’t know). Just like the photo wall in Hyunjin’s room, his instagram account has photos of many different things and people as well, and all of them are beautifully captured and edited. He’s got quite a lot of followers too, and all of his pictures have hundreds and even thousands of likes.

 

Seungmin’s gaze falls on one particular picture, his thumb quickly clicking on it to see it in a bigger form. It is indeed a picture of him with Kkami taken during the lunch at the Hwangs’ back then- candid like most of Hyunjin’s photo are. He really has a knack for candid pictures, Seungmin decides.

 

Seungmin freezes when he feels Hyunjin stirring a little, his thumb now hastily closing the app as he does not want to get caught checking Hyunjin’s page by Hyunjin himself. Seungmin waits a moment before carefully leaning his head down a little to check if Hyunjin’s awake. He isn’t.

 

It’s a beautiful sight, though- this of Hyunjin sleeping. Hyunjin looks calm and peaceful and he’s got really pretty eyelashes, and so is the mole under his left eye.

 

Seungmin stares at the phone in his hand, and then at Hyunjin through the reflection of the window. He opens his camera app to quietly take a selca with the still sleeping Hyunjin, and then another of just Hyunjin sleeping. Smiling in satisfaction at the pictures he just took, Seungmin locks his phone and puts it away. Carefully, Seungmin leans his head on Hyunjin’s and seeing Hyunjin’s palm open on display, he reaches his fingers out to touch it. At first, he draws random shapes in soft motions as to not disturb Hyunjin from his sleep, but slowly the shapes turn to repetitive heart. Seungmin pauses for brief seconds, tapping his finger lightly on Hyunjin’s palm and then he’s writing the word  _ thank you _ on it.

 

_ I,  _ he continues- his subconscious mind whispers him to write  _ like you _ , but the bus comes to an abrupt stop, startling not only Seungmin but Hyunjin as well. At the front, the bus driver apologizes for pushing on the brake too hard but Seungmin is instead looking at where they currently are as he’d been busy with his thoughts to care about their surrounding.

 

“Oh, it’s our stop,” Hyunjin confirms, immediately recognizing the place despite having just woken up from sleep. He puts his backpack on and yawns into his hand again as he leads them both out.

 

Seungmin follows without any word, feeling a bit startled by the revelation of his feelings for Hyunjin. Sure, Hyunjin makes him feel a lot of different things, but it’s a first time for him to acknowledge he likes Hyunjin, and maybe more than just friends, too. It’s new and scary to him and the small rational part of his brain is asking him to stop whatever this is, is reminding him that Hyunjin is a friend and that  _ you’re going to ruin everything you have with him. Is that what you want? _

 

And yet, when Hyunjin turns his head around at him, the little frown on his face when he notices the distance separating them both and how he waves his hand at Seungmin to hurry up so they can walk together, the sleepy smile on his face...Seungmin selfishly falls deeper still and greedily wants more.

 

Besides, if he keeps quiet and doesn’t tell Hyunjin about how he feels, nothing will get ruined. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you will have a lovely weekend! ❤
> 
> Find me on [twitter!](http://twitter.com/seungjinstar)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't know what to call this. It's basically what you've already read in previous chapters, but it'll be in Hyunjin's point of view. I guess it's not an actual new chapter? Something like an intermission, maybe?? Iono, really lol.
> 
> This kind of update may be long or short. Like this one, for example, is less than 3k words hahah.
> 
> I'm also posting this as a mini celebration for skz's comeback and to us hitting 7mil+ views in the first 24hours after the My Pace mv was released. Well done stray kids and fellow stay! Here's to more good things waiting ahead of us <3

Hyunjin had been bored at home, back aching from hours of editing photos on his desktop and when his hand meets empty air in the last packet of jelly candies, he decides it’s a perfect timing to go out and get new snacks for his stock.

 

He leaves his phone to charge in his room, not bothered to take it with him even though there’s already enough battery life to last the trip to the mini mart and back home. He puts on extra layers of clothing because it still gets really cold outside, slips his Vans on and leaves after informing his parents that he’d be out to get some stuff at the nearby mart.

 

Now the mart isn’t as nearby as he made it sound to be; it’s a 15-minute walk, maybe 10 if Hyunjin uses the shortcut and walks fast enough, but since Hyunjin is in the mood to take long walks in the cold air as much as he can, he takes his sweet, sweet time to get to the mart, then choose his snacks before heading back home.

 

Quiet nights like this are nice. Hyunjin likes it. It’s not that Hyunjin lives in a noisy household for him to only appreciate the silence when he’s out of the house like this. It’s just the feeling of being outside alone that he enjoys a lot- walking under the vast dark sky filled with stars, letting his mind wanders off to places as he heads to his destination, accompanied by the quiet thuds of his footsteps on the concrete ground. There’s something oddly satisfying about being outside while everyone else are already locked in the safety of their homes- probably already drifted far away in dreamland, and him walking alone in the streets like this makes him feel invincible, like the place is his to explore.

 

Hyunjin hears the soft thud before he sees the source of the sound, coming to a halt and looking up to see where the sound came from. He’s alerted into worry when his eyes find a figure leaning against the brick wall, hands covering their ears. The street lights in the neighborhood are dim and the figure is half-covered in the shadows, but even in the darkness, Hyunjin can sense fear emitting from the person, can see how shaky his whole body is.

 

“Shit,” is what comes out from his mouth first. “Are you o-okay?” Hyunjin swallows thickly, dropping the plastic bag in his hand onto the ground and moving closer to the person.

 

“I’m sorry!” the person- a guy- shouts and Hyunjin comes to an immediate halt again, staring at the guy with wide eyes. “I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt me.” Hyunjin softens at that, his shoulders slumping down with concern as he gives the guy few moments to calm down, as well as give himself time to think on how to approach the situation on hand.

 

He feels his heart sinks when he realizes the guy is crying, realizes how frightened he is, so carefully, Hyunjin says “Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay. I’m not gonna hurt you.” in the softest voice he could muster. The guy lets out a hiccup and finally looks up at Hyunjin. Hyunjin sees the eyes sparkling with tears, the fear and anguish so evident in them that makes Hyunjin’s heart sinks even more. He wonders who the guy is because it is not a face he recognizes, wonders what happened to the guy. Is he new around here? Is he lost?

 

“My name is Hyunjin. Hwang Hyunjin. What’s yours?” Hyunjin asks, careful not to startle the guy. He hears the guy muttering under his breath but doesn’t catch what it is, but doesn’t prod him to repeat himself, or his name. Instead, Hyunjin patiently waits as the guy wipes the tears with the sleeves of his jacket (he allows himself to smile a little at the sweater paws), watches as the guy takes a deep breath in and lets it all out, watches as he tries to calm himself down, all the while while keeping his distance away from the guy.

 

“You’re not hurt, are you?” Hyunjin tries again. Hyunjin lets out a silent breath of relief when the guy shakes his head. “That’s good. That’s really good,” he says. And then: “Can I come closer? Is that okay?”

 

Hyunjin bounces on his feet uneasily when the guy doesn’t respond again. Should he stay? Should he get closer anyway? In the end, he decides to approach the guy with slow, careful steps so that he could ask Hyunjin to stop if he wants to. To Hyunjin’s relief, the guy doesn’t shout at him again. He sits on his heels, still giving a space between him and the guy, and hugs his knees to his chest.

 

After a couple minutes of observation, Hyunjin breaks the silence with a “Are you new around here?” The guy sniffles and nods his head. “Are you lost?” he asks again. Hyunjin feels half-bad and half-endeared when the guy whimpers in what seems like an embarrassment, and wants to tell him that it’s okay but only a smile makes its way on Hyunjin’s face. The guy seems to have lost his words again and focused on composing himself, but that’s fine with Hyunjin. It gives him time to study the guy properly- the way his long, fluffy bangs are covering his forehead and almost reaching his eyes, which were downcasted on the ground, making his eyelashes appear longer with the way the light hits the side of his face. There are remnants of tears on his left cheek and Hyunjin itches to wipe it away but restrains himself as he knows that would only make the guy alarmed and scared. Seeing how the guy’s lips are slightly curled downward, Hyunjin feels a sudden urge to protect him but he doesn’t know why. He doesn’t even know this guy! He could be a kidnapper or serial killer in disguise, preying on innocent passersby like this. But then again...the guy looks genuinely scared, and his tears had been real.

 

_ Ah, whatever. I’m gonna help him anyway _ , Hyunjin thinks to himself.  _ He looks like he needs one… _

 

“Are you feeling better now?” Hyunjin asks and feels a little bad for startling the guy, but he answers with a quiet, sheepish “Yeah” back to Hyunjin. “Are you lost? Do you want me to help?” Hyunjin then offers.

 

When the guy finally lifts his head up to look at Hyunjin, Hyunjin feels his breath hitching at the sight of the guy’s face up close because he- he is really cute. Given the circumstances they’re in, it’s inappropriate to have this kind of thought but Hyunjin really can’t help it. This person is literally the cutest guy Hyunjin’s ever laid his eyes on, and he’s friends with Jeongin, who are the cute maknae in their group of friends, which is saying a lot.

 

“Yeah,” the guy breaks Hyunjin’s train of thoughts. Hyunjin feels oddly happy the stranger trusts him enough to let Hyunjin help him find his way back home. “Do you have someone you want to call?”

 

“My brother,” comes the quick reply. A frown makes its way onto his face as he adds in “But I left my phone at home.”

 

Hyunjin presses his lips into a thin line to suppress the grin from appearing on his face, seeing how cute the guy is with his lower lip slightly pouted like that. If this was one of his friends- specifically Jeongin- Hyunjin wouldn’t hold himself back from pinching their cheeks.

 

_ Get a grip, Hwang Hyunjin! _ Hyunjin mentally scolds himself.

 

“I’d lend you my phone but I left it at home to charge as well,” Hyunjin finally says. The guy visibly deflates after hearing what Hyunjin said so he quickly suggests: “It’s okay though! My house is nearby. We can drop by to get my phone first and then you can call your family.”,  getting up to fetch the almost forgotten plastic bag on the ground. His hand quickly dives into the bag to look for something as he makes his way to the guy, pulling out a lollipop to hand it to him as a form of persuasion to calm the guy down and make him believe Hyunjin means no harm. “What do you think?”

 

The guy only eyes the lollipop in Hyunjin’s hand and when he doesn’t make any move to take it, Hyunjin encourages him so the guy does, albeit hesitantly. “Sounds good, yeah? My house is this way. Let’s go,” Hyunjin beckons towards the way to his house. His house is  _ not  _ as near as he said,  _ at all _ , but Hyunjin doesn’t want the stranger to refuse going with him and end up having to leave him behind there. Who knows what kind of people would be out this late at night (other than the kind, helpful people like himself and the cute people like the stranger, of course) so Hyunjin isn’t just going to risk leaving the guy alone.

 

The guy eventually stands up but the fear and doubt can still be seen in his eyes as he looks at Hyunjin. Hyunjin offers a kind smile and says “I’m not going to hurt you. It’ll be okay. We’ll get you home.”

 

“Okay,” the guy sniffles, taking a step forward. Together, they walk in silence, with Hyunjin asking himself question after question about the guy as he makes sure he is still following him.

  
  
  
  
  


“Hey!” Hyunjin shouts at the guy sprinting past him, watching dumbly as he opens a gate to a home and gets inside.

 

“Umm, this is my house,” the guy explains.

 

“Oh?” Hyunjin stops to look, absentmindedly nodding his head as he makes careful observation of the house. “Ah, so your family are the ones who moved here! The house has been empty for so long after the Horvejkuls moved to Busan,” Hyunjin says, smiling as he recalls the previous owner of the house and their cute kids and little puppies. He reckons they’re probably already grown up now. Hyunjin used to enjoy playing with the kids and their pets. “That means we’re neighbors! My house is right over there,” Hyunjin points to the direction of the house. He doesn’t know if the guy knows which house he is referring to, although he does nods his head.

 

“Thank you,” the guy bows his head. “Good night,” he greets and closes the gate, scurrying to the front door. Hyunjin watches in amusement, standing on his toes to look over the gates until the guy disappears behind the door. “Cute,” he grins, eyes looking around the house as he begins making his way back home.

 

His hand reaches for another lollipop in the  plastic bag, taking off the wrapper before shoving the candy into his mouth. “So he really is new around here,” Hyunjin mutters to himself. “Ah, but didn’t manage to get his name,” Hyunjin belatedly realizes. He turns around to look at the house again and sees the guy from before standing behind a sliding door on the second floor, yanking the curtains closed when their gazes meet.

 

Hyunjin grins wider this time thinking that it’s okay- they are neighbors now so Hyunjin will meet the stranger again and learns his name sooner or later.

  
  
  
  
  


So i went out to get snacks

And on my way back home

I stumbled upon a lost boy

 

**Kim Woojin**

Lost boy? Is he okay?

 

Yeah i think he’s okay now

He was having a panic attack when i saw him

 

**CB97**

Wow sounds serious

 

**daramjisung**

Did you help him?

How’d he get lost anyway?

 

Idk. He’s new around here

And of course i did help him

Both of us didn’t have our phones with us

So i told him we could go to my house first

 

**Hohohominho**

Lol lowkey creepy

 

**daramjisung**

Hahaha you right

 

Shut up

I told him we could go to my house first to get my phone

So you know

He could call his family or something

 

**Binnie**

Bold of you to bring a stranger home

He could’ve been a bad guy

 

**FelixLee**

Where does he live anyway?

 

Listen

He’s far from being a bad guy

He’s kinda cute actually

 

**YangFox**

Would you still help him if he wasn’t cute?

 

SHUT

OF COURSE I WOULD

And Felix, he lives four blocks away from our house

 

**Binnie**

Oh he moves in to that empty house?

 

Yes. So we’re neighbors

 

**daramjisung**

Poor guy...he has you as his neighbor.

I’ll be praying for him

 

**Hohohominho**

HAHAHA

 

**FelixLee**

Lol jisung pls

 

**YangFox**

lololol

 

Qlshslsjsl

This disrespect

 

**Kim Woojin**

Guys, this is serious

So did you and the boy get back home safely yeah?

 

Yeah…

 

**CB97**

How old is this boy again?

Is he a kid?

So dangerous for him to be out this late though

 

Idk how old exactly

But young. Maybe around our age?

 

**Hohohominho**

What’s his name?

 

Idk

Yet

 

**Binnie**

Lame

 

BUT I WILL FIND OUT

sooner or later

Guys he’s so cute

Istg

Like. Idk

Like a puppy

 

**daramjisung**

You’re so rude omg

How could you call someone you just met a dog

 

I SAID PUPPY

aND ALL DOGS ARE CUTE PLS

 

**FelixLee**

On the scale of 1 - 10, how cute is he?

 

**Binnie**

And why do you want to know?

 

**FelixLee**

Lol calm down binnie.

I’m just entertaining him

 

Like

A solid 20

He’s soooo cute

Like jeongin. But cuter

 

**YangFox**

Poor guy...he has you as his neighbor.

I’ll be praying for him (2)

 

**Hohohominho**

(3)

 

**Binnie**

(4)

 

THE

 

**CB97**

(5)

 

**Kim Woojin**

(6)

 

D:<

Felix istg….

 

**FelixLee**

Lol sorry hyunjin

(7)

 

Alsjsksks

Wait ‘till you meet him and see how cute he is

with your own two eyes

Actually, nevermind. I hope he doesn’t have to meet you guys ever

 

**daramjisung**

Already so possessive huh

This whipped culture

 

BYE


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so when i first wrote this chapter, i thought it was the cutest chapter that i'd ever written for lost stars but after finishing and editing, i realized it's nothing special. LOL. but it's still cute, though. I promise.
> 
> This is very self-indulgent because i've had very shitty weeks and writing fluff is one of the ways to cheer myself up so this was born. I hope this chapter will make you smile as well <3
> 
> And oh yeah, i'm no longer changlix but cherryjaem now lol \o/

“Seungmin?” Seungmin snaps from his thoughts when he hears Hyunjin calling for him. “Come on, let’s go,” Hyunjin smiles sleepily as he beckons his head at the street ahead of him. Seungmin nods, fixes the straps of his backpack and jogs towards Hyunjin, who was walking a few meters ahead of Seungmin.

 

“Sorry,” is what Seungmin says as he catches up with Hyunjin. “I-I thought I left something back there. Then I remembered I put it inside my backpack,” Seungmin lies, but pats his hand on his backpack to make him sound more convincing. Hyunjin doesn’t question what it is that Seungmin is referring to- thank goodness- and easily accepts his explanation with a hum.

 

“Are you cold?”

 

“Not really. Are you?”

 

Hyunjin nods his head and shoves his hands into the pockets of his parka. “A little. Ah, I should’ve had brought an extra layer of shirt.”

 

“Wait,” Seungmin slips a strap off his shoulder to reach for his backpack. “I have heat packs somewhere in here, I think,” he says, mindful to step to the side as to not block the street even though no one else is really using it at the time being. He sits down on his heels and zips open his backpack to look for the said heat packs.

 

“It’s not necessary,” Hyunjin says. He crouches down next to Seungmin but instead of stopping Seungmin, he’s peering at the insides of Seungmin’s backpack with equal amounts of interest and curiosity. “I can stomach the cold.”

 

“I won’t allow that,” Seungmin says, hand digging through the things in his bag to get to the heat packs. Why does he even have this many things inside his bag anyway?

 

“Why not?” A smile in Hyunjin’s voice. “It’s only a 15 minutes walk to get to the warmth of our house.”

 

“I’m not going to risk you falling sick, Hwang Hyunjin. They’re somewhere in here, I know they are-”

 

“Oh, is that sour belt?” Hyunjin cuts him off and gets his hand on the half-eaten sour belt nicely wrapped in a resealable plastic bag. He doesn’t even ask for permission to open the bag and eat the candy. Not that Seungmin minds, especially when he’s still busy looking for the heat packs. God, where are those things anyway? He could have sworn he still had a few packets left. “It’s the same flavor with the one I gave to you last time. I thought you didn’t like it.”

 

“That  _ is _ the one you gave to me,” Seungmin clarifies.

 

“What? Aww you carry it everywhere with you?” Hyunjin teases. Yeap, Hyunjin is definitely more awake than he was few minutes ago. Curse those sour belts.

 

“I mean, I wouldn’t know when it would come in handy. Like right now,” Seungmin makes a point, gesturing at the candy and then at Hyunjin, ignoring the blush appearing on his face at Hyunjin teasing him. “I was beginning to think you’d ask me to carry you back home because you were too sleepy to walk.”

 

“Well,” Hyunjin perks up with interest at this. He bites off the candy and chews on it. Seungmin remembers the taste and grimaces just watching Hyunjin eats, and wonders how the guy can stand the sour candy. “Were you going to carry me if I asked you to?”

 

“Hah. You wish,” Seungmin answers distractedly, groaning when he can’t find what he’s looking for. He slumps his shoulders down in defeat and hits a hand on the backpack. “Maybe they’re in my other backpack.”

 

“It’s fine. It’s cold but not that cold.”

 

Seungmin zips his bag and puts it back on as he gets on his feet. “Maybe we can get warm canned coffee or something before we head home. The convenience store is...this way, right?” Seungmin points to his left.

 

“Or maybe we can hold hands or something,” Hyunjin suggests offhandedly. Seungmin looks down at Hyunjin still crouching on the ground and chewing the candy. He grins cheekily at Seungmin when their gazes meet. “Provides the same warmth  except it’s easier, effective  _ and _ free.”

 

It’s not that they have never held hands before. They had, but it was always so brief, usually hand touching hand and nothing more. After realizing his possible feelings for Hyunjin, Seungmin doesn’t think it would be good for his heart if he were to hold hands with Hyunjin and walk all the way back to their house. Is he really going to take Hyunjin’s suggestion anyway?

 

Yes, he is.

 

“I guess you have a point there,” Seungmin holds his hand out to Hyunjin, feeling his heart flutters at the way Hyunjin’s grin widens. God, is it his life mission now to make Hyunjin smile and laugh? Possibly. “Drinking coffee will only make us stay up late.”

 

“Exactly,” Hyunjin agrees. He grabs Seungmin’s hand and bounces back on his feet. Seungmin is surprised by how cold Hyunjin’s hand is.

 

“Oh my God, why is your hand so cold?” Seungmin widens his eyes in shock, lips pressed together into a thin line as he pulls Hyunjin’s other hand and cups them in between his. He rubs Hyunjin’s hands with his in hope to make them warmer.

 

“I’m fine. Really,” Hyunjin looks at him with a soft smile.

 

“This will not do. We have to hurry home,” Seungmin nods in determination and tugs on Hyunjin’s hand to pull him to walk with him.

 

“Ah, but I don’t want to hurry home.”

 

“What? Why?” Seungmin looks around to look for cars before crossing the street. “It’ll be so much warmer in there.”

 

“Well, yeah. But, like-” Hyunjin pauses. Seungmin steals a glance and sees Hyunjin biting the strap of candy again.

 

“There’s Kkami at your house, too.”

 

“True. But…”

 

“But?” Seungmin encourages and raises an eyebrow up. Hyunjin doesn’t answer but instead, he seals the plastic bag and slips it inside the side pocket of Seungmin’s backpack.

 

“You’re not there,” Hyunjin mumbles in a very tiny voice that Seungmin isn’t sure he’s heard it right.

 

“What did you say?”

 

“It’s cold and all out here, and I’m a little tired but at least we’re together, you know?”

 

Seungmin feels both his ears and cheeks burn, and so look away. He doesn’t know what to make out of the thing Hyunjin’s said but despite feeling confused of these signs Hyunjin’s throwing, Seungmin feels happy too. It’s nice. He feels wanted and appreciated, and can’t keep the smile from appearing on his face.

 

“Not that I’m a fun person that can keep you entertained to begin with, nor am I able to keep you warm,” Seungmin jokes.

 

“That’s not true,” Hyunjin disagrees. “I like spending time with you.”

 

“Even when we’re not doing anything?”

 

“Even when we’re not doing anything,” Hyunjin nods in agreement. “Even silences with you are nice and comfortable. I like it.”

 

Seungmin doesn’t say anything to that- doesn’t know  _ what  _ to say so he lets the silence slips in.

 

Halfway through their walk home, Seungmin’s beginning to feel the cold so he increases his pace and shoves his other hand into his pocket. He doesn’t know if Hyunjin’s noticed this but by the way Hyunjin carefully intertwines their fingers together and squeezes Seungmin’s hand, he must have known and maybe felt the sudden drop in temperature as well. The cold is easily forgotten now, though, as Seungmin can only focus on their interlocked fingers and how warm Hyunjin’s hand is now. It feels good and it’s nice and Seungmin’s hit by regretful realization at how he’s going to have to let go of Hyunjin’s hand later when they arrive home. He doesn’t want to let go. It may be cold out here but at least he has Hyunjin with him. Seungmin thinks he gets what Hyunjin was saying earlier on. He doesn’t want to part from Hyunjin and be alone without him.

 

Seungmin’s interrupted from his thoughts by Hyunjin pulling their connected hands into the pocket of his parka for extra warmth, and he blushes embarrassingly hard at this. It just feels so damn intimate and Seungmin is not strong enough for this, God please help him and his poor heart. Why does Hyunjin have to be so sweet and kind and understanding and so, so perfect?

 

“It’s getting kinda cold for you too, huh?” Hyunjin breaks the silence again, his thumb rubbing on Seungmin’s hand. Seungmin only nods dumbly at this, making Hyunjin chuckle. They have entered the street that leads to their houses and Seungmin suddenly feels sad, until-

 

“Wait, hold on,” Hyunjin stops Seungmin from walking and pulls him to the nearest brick fence.

 

Seungmin looks up at Hyunjin and tilts his head in question. “What’s wrong?”

 

“It’s cold, right?” Hyunjin asks and when Seungmin nods his head, unsure of where this is leading them to, Hyunjin puts the hoodie of his parka on and then does the same for Seungmin. Before Seungmin could ask what he’s doing, Hyunjin lets go of his hand to pull Seungmin’s arms to loop around his waist beneath the parka. Seungmin hugs Hyunjin on instinct and hums in content at the warmth emitted from Hyunjin’s body. “Better?”

 

“Better, better, baby,” Seungmin whisper-sings to Day6’s Better Better tune that gets Hyunjin chuckling again and hugging Seungmin back. They stay like that for few minutes and at one point, Seungmin shifts his face a little so he can lightly press his nose on the crook of Hyunjin’s neck. Seungmin is not as daring as Hyunjin is when it comes to skinship so even if he feels tempted to nuzzle his face on Hyunjin’s neck, he doesn’t have the guts to actually do it. Furthermore, he isn’t sure how Hyunjin would feel about that so decides it’s better to be on the safe side and not do it. He’d rather not make Hyunjin feel uncomfortable by his action.

 

(And Seungmin is trying to suppress his feelings for Hyunjin and keep them hidden as to not ruin what they have, remember?)

 

Seungmin inhales Hyunjin’s scent, and being so close to him like this, Seungmin’s nose catches the smell of something else- a bit of roasted coffee with a touch of vanilla. It’s a weird combination with Hyunjin’s cologne but somehow it works and it’s a scent Seungmin doesn’t mind getting used to.

 

“You smell nice,” Seungmin says out loud without actually meaning to. He doesn’t regret it though, not when he hears Hyunjin laughing at his words and feels Hyunjin’s hand lightly patting the back of his head.

 

“Thanks?” Hyunjin replies unsurely with a lingering laughter. The silence settles around them comfortably together with the pleasant warmth shared between them. It’s ridiculous now that Seungmin thinks about it, how they’re only few steps away from their homes where they could easily and quickly warm themselves up but instead they’re doing this instead. Seungmin doesn’t want to be too hopeful on what this all could mean so for the time being, he’s just going to let himself bask in the moment.

 

“Minnie…”

 

“Hmm?” Seungmin hums back at Hyunjin calling for him. Seungmin waits for Hyunjin to continue what he wanted to say but after few minutes have passed and there’s still no signs of Hyunjin saying anything, Seungmin pulls away from Hyunjin so he can look at the other guy. “Jinnie? What is it?” Seungmin asks when Hyunjin stares at him with a contemplative look in his eyes. Seungmin knows there are things Hyunjin wanted to say, the words just hanging at the tips of his tongue but he’s keeping them inside with a stubborn press of his lips together. For a split second, a flash of determination crosses Hyunjin’s face but it’s gone just as quick when Hyunjin blinks his eyes and looks away, abruptly crouching down on the ground.

 

“I don’t want to go home!” he announces as he hugs his knees to his chest. “I’ll just stay here maybe.”

 

“What? Don’t be ridiculous. It’s cold out here,” Seungmin crouches down in front of Hyunjin. Hyunjin doesn’t say anything and because the big hoodie is covering Hyunjin’s eyes, Seungmin has to duck his head to meet with his gaze. “Hi?”

 

There’s something unknown playing on Hyunjin’s face but when his gaze meets with Seungmin’s, Hyunjin’s eyes visibly soften and the smile quickly makes its way onto his face. “Hey,” he says, voice just as soft. 

 

“Why don’t you want to go home, Hyunjinnie?~” Hyunjin pouts at Seungmin’s question and Seungmin melts at the sight because how is it possible for someone to be this cute? This childish side of Hyunjin is new to Seungmin but not unwanted. In fact, it’s refreshing for Seungmin to learn this side of Hyunjin.

 

“If I go home now, I’ll have to say goodbye to you.”

 

“And you don’t want that?”

 

“No.” Seungmin can’t help himself from grinning because Hyunjin is seriously too cute for Seungmin to handle. He deals with it the best way he could- and that is by squishing Hyunjin’s cheeks with his hands. Hyunjin’s protest dies in his mouth when he realizes how cold Seungmin’s hands are against his warm cheeks. “Oh my God, now  _ you’re _ freezing.”

 

“Now  _ you’re _ the one exaggerating,” Seungmin says. He lets Hyunjin pull him up and walk him to his house.

 

“So I guess this is goodbye…”

 

Seungmin bursts out laughing at that. “We live four blocks away!”

 

“That’s four blocks too far, okay!” Hyunjin laughs too now, mirth in the crinkles of his eyes.

 

“You’re sending me off to home not to war, oh my God, you’re so silly.”

 

“Well at least I made you laugh,” Hyunjin grins, pulling down the hoodie off his head, making his hair a bit of a mess because of that. Seungmin giggles and reaches a hand to comb the hair back into place. “You should really get inside,” Hyunjin says, tilting his chin up towards the house.

 

“And you should go home too,” Seungmin agrees with a nod, pushing the gate open. “Goodnight, Hyunjin.”

 

“Goodnight, Seungmin,” Hyunjin greets back. He waves a hand at Seungmin and takes few backwards steps towards the Hwangs’ residence before turning around completely. Seungmin smiles to himself and closes the gate, making his way to the house.

 

“Oh look who’s back,” Wonpil greets, walking out of the kitchen with an apple in his hand as Seungmin was just about to head upstairs to his room. “Totally didn’t see you out there with Hyunjin, by the way,” he winks, full with mischief. Seungmin chokes on air.

 

“...What?”

 

“I said I didn’t see you out there with Hyunjin, cozying up from the cold~”

 

Seungmin blushes immediately. “Look, it isn’t what it looked like. And be quiet, would you? Mom will hear you!”

 

As if on cue, their mom walks out from the kitchen next, approaching the two siblings when he sees Seungmin has arrived home. “Do you want something to eat? I’ve put away some foods for you.”

 

“No, thanks,” Seungmin shakes his head. “I’m still full.”

 

“Oh right, how could I forgot. You had dinner date with Hyunjin!”

 

“I had what-” Seungmin sputters in disbelief. Wonpil grins and drapes an arm over Seungmin’s shoulders. 

 

“How was the date?” Wonpil asks the question with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows.

 

“It-it wasn’t a date!”

 

“Of course it’s not, sweetie,” their mom join in the teasing, resulting in Seungmin whining loudly and hugging his mom out of sheer embarrassment and as a silent plea for them to stop teasing him.

 

“I told you it wasn’t a date…”

 

“We’re just playing with you,” their mom chuckles, rubbing her hand on Seungmin’s back. “But tell me, did you want it to be? A date? Would you like that?”

 

Seungmin flushes even more at the question. Okay, now that they mentioned it like that, and especially after realizing he likes Hyunjin more than just friend, maybe he did want it to be a date. Or, more like, he’d like to have dates with Hyunjin. Just the thought of it makes his heart flutters. But is it right to want it? Would his mom and brother like that? Would Hyunjin?

 

“Not if you don’t,” Seungmin murmurs eventually. His mom stops stroking his back, and even Wonpil stops eating his apple to look at Seungmin.

 

“Oh, honey…,” she says, pulling away so she could cup Seungmin’s cheeks with her hands. “It’s not about whether me or your brother would like it or not. It’s about you. What do you feel about it? What do you want?”

 

Seungmin avoids their eyes.  _ It doesn’t matter, _ Seungmin thinks. He wants something he can’t have. It’s always been like that, isn’t it? Why would this be any different?

 

His mom sighs when Seungmin doesn’t answer. “Well for the record, I just want you to know that I’m fine with whoever you want to be with. Unless they’re some creepy old fellas or criminals then I’m definitely opposed to that.” 

 

“That applies to whatever you want to do, too,” Wonpil adds. “We support you in whatever it is you want to do. Please don’t forget that.” Seungmin can’t help but to give a small smile at that. He appreciates the gesture.

 

“Thank you…”

 

“By the way, Hyunjin and you are so cute together, sweetie.”

 

Seungmin groans and runs up the stairs, shouting a “I’m going to my room!” to escape his mom and brother’s further teasing, leaving them laughing downstairs.

 

Seungmin closes the door to his room and lies down on his bed, staring unseeing on the ceiling above of him. He’s already thinking of what his mom and Wonpil had said to him, but doesn’t want to fall deeper into his thoughts so Seungmin takes his phone out and activates the screen. His eyes widen when he sees the notifications from Hyunjin and quickly opens to see the texts.

 

**hhj203**

Did you go home safely?

 

Lol

You saw me got home safe and sound

 

**hhj203**

Doesnt hurt to be sure ;)

 

Did you arrive home safely?

 

**hhj203**

Well

I almost tripped on my own foot

Other than that, yes i did~

 

Wow

I thought Jisung’s the clumsy one

But good to know you’ve arrived home

 

**hhj203**

Lololqhqlak

Got it from jisung maybe

Heard it’s contagious and i’ve been friends with him since we were kids

SIGH

anway

Today was really fun

Sad that it was only for a while

We should go out together more often

 

Sounds like a plan

 

**hhj203**

\o/

I’m gonna shower and finish editing some stuff

 

Alright

Take care :)

 

**hhj203**

Ttyl!!

 

Seungmin closes his kakaotalk app and stares at the screen of his phone. He’s changed the wallpaper back to plain black a while ago, but he’s reminded of the picture of him and Hyunjin that they took before for his homescreen wallpaper. He goes through his phone’s gallery to look for the photo and smiles when he finds it. Hyunjin had smiled so brightly in the picture, while Seungmin had a polite smile on. It’s not awkward but not the best picture either but Seungmin likes it the same. It’s special because it’s their first ever picture together.

 

Seungmin scrolls back up to the latest pictures to click on the one he took of Hyunjin sleeping in the bus. It came out a little blurry but still captured Hyunjin’s beauty well. He pulls the phone closer to try to count Hyunjin’s eyelashes but then realizes he’s being a weird lil’ shit. As if the whole universe agrees with that, the phone slips from his hand and crashes painfully on his face.

 

“Oww,” Seungmin presses his hand on the bridge of his nose where it hurts the most as if by doing so would stop the pain. He sulkily pushes the phone further away from him and grabs his pillow to scream into it.

 

_ This is so unfair _ , he thinks. How does he stop feeling like this? How  _ could _ he stop liking Hyunjin? The cute, sweet, kind and caring Hyunjin? God, help him.

  
  
  
  
  


_ So unfair _ , Seungmin thinks hours later when the night’s turned late and he’s still up thinking about Hyunjin.

  
  
  
  
  


_ So very unfair _ , Seungmin thinks when he only got one hour of sleep and went down to get breakfast only to see Hyunjin is in the kitchen with Seungmin’s mom, working on making pancakes together. He has a stain of whipped cream on his cheek and Seungmin really has no idea how he’d even managed to get it there but Hyunjin is smiling and laughing so prettily as he approaches Seungmin and before he knows it, Seungmin is pulled into Hyunjin’s hug, vaguely hearing Hyunjin cooing about how cute his bed hair and surprised face are.

 

_ God, I look like shit _ , Seungmin registers belatedly. And here Hyunjin is looking so cute and shit but the pretty kind of shit and Seungmin really can’t think properly nor function right running on only one hour of sleep but seeing Hyunjin chatting and laughing with his mom is doing weird things to his chest and stomach and Seungmin doesn’t know what this feeling is but it’s nice and confusing but nice and Seungmin just really, really, really wants to be in Hyunjin’s arms and falls asleep there but, but,  _ but. _

 

_ God, this is so unfair _ , Seungmin drops his head onto the table, welcoming the sharp pain on his forehead and waving a lazy arm at the voices asking if he’s okay.

 

_ Yeap. So unfair. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy weekend and have a great one, lovelies!!! ❤❤❤


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another chapter from Hyunjin's pov <3  
> please excuse any typos and mistakes ehe.

“Get some cheetos too!” Jisung half-shouts from the other end of the call. There are noises of chaos in the background and Hyunjin tuts in disapproval, rolling his eyes at Jisung’s demand. Not that Jisung can see him anyway but it’s an automatic reaction, almost by reflex.

 

“Okay, I got it,” Hyunjin replies. There’s no way he could say no because it was the deal- whoever loses in their game of Monopoly or UNO (or rock paper scissors on lazy days) has to buy the snacks for their next meetup. Hyunjin’s only half-annoyed because he’s lost thrice in a row now and feeding the guys is not a cheap thing, even with just snacks. “Just please, everyone, stay alive. At least until I get there.”

 

“We’ll be just fine,” Jisung assures. “We’ve got everything under con- no, Jeongin! Hey! Don’t touch my gundam!” Jisung’s voice sounds farther away from the phone now. Hyunjin can hear Jeongin cackling, Jisung shouting and Felix egging them on to fight.

 

Hyunjin sighs. “This is what happens when you guys are left without any adult supervision,” he says into the phone. Although his friends probably didn’t hear him and probably even forgot they are on a phone call with Hyunjin, he doesn’t hang up. He doesn’t like the noises but thinks it’s the only way to know no one gets accidentally killed.

 

“Excuse you, there _is_ an adult here,” a different voice can be heard talking into the receiver. Hyunjin stops right in front of the entrance of the supermarket, making the doors automatically slide open from detecting Hyunjin’s presence, and his still damp hair ruffled into a mess by the air curtain above of him.

 

“Minho hyung?” Hyunjin raises his eyebrows in question, finally starting to walk into the supermarket after recovering from his initial confusion from hearing Minho’s voice because as far as Hyunjin remembers, none of the three eldest hyungs of the group was free to hangout that night.

 

“One and only,” Minho affirms.

 

“What are you doing there? I thought you guys were busy,” Hyunjin asks. He takes the shopping basket and walks straight to the snacks section.

 

“Hmmwell,” Minho drags the word. “I completed my task sooner than expected and met Changbin on my way back to the dorm so we decided to come here together.”

 

“Hah, so Changbin hyung is already there. No wonder I can no longer hear Felix,” Hyunjin snickers.

 

“Yes, they are being their usual gross lovey dovey selves in the corner of the room,” Minho teases, no actual bite in his voice. He laughs with Hyunjin when Felix shouts a loud “ _Oi!_ ” at them.

 

“Hey, Hyunjin, Hyunjin I almost forgot!”

 

Hyunjin rolls his eyes as he takes three packets of cheetos and carelessly tosses them into his basket. “What is it, Sungie?” he asks anyway.

 

“Get some drinks, too. We ran out of coke.”

 

Hyunjin’s about to protest but before he could, Minho interrupts with a: “Oh, no need for that. Woojin hyung is bringing over some actual foods and drinks to feed us, he said.”

 

“Woojin hyung is coming?” both Jisung and Hyunjin ask at the same time, surprised.

 

“I feel at peace now knowing an actual adult is coming to watch over you guys,” Hyunjin says after Minho confirms their question.

 

“Hey, what is that supposed to mean?!” Minho protests.

 

“I’m hanging up now,” Hyunjin announces with a laugh and ends the call, Minho’s further complain cuts short. He pockets his phone and turns the corner to get to the second snacks aisle where all the chocolates and candies are, stopping short in his tracks when he sees someone standing at the other end of the shelves. His eyes widen in unsure recognition at the somehow familiar figure.

 

“Is that the guy from the other night?” Hyunjin mutters to himself, head tilted slightly as he carefully observes the guy looking at the immense amount of chocolates and candies in front of him. The jacket is unmistakably the same, as do the white Nike Air Force 1 sneakers he’s wearing. Hyunjin deduces this _is_ the same guy from the other night. His new neighbor. Hyunjin hides himself behind the shelf and gives one last look at the guy before putting down his shopping basket and pulling out his phone again. He quickly unlocks it and goes straight to the group chat.

 

Cute guy spotted!

 

**Hohohominho**

Name? Age? Height?

Hair color?

 

**daramjisung**

Pic, or it’s just a hallucination

 

R u crazy

I am NOT taking his picture

 

**daramjisung**

I thought you were always creepy anyway

Taking sneaky pictures of ppl

Tsk

 

Shut

 

**FelixLee**

I honestly don’t know if i can trust your taste in men

He’s probably not even that cute :p

 

Shut up yongbok

You’re with changbin hyung. You don’t get to talk good taste bad taste with me

 

**FelixLee**

Aoajslsls

EXCUSE ME

 

**Binnie**

I am wounded

 

**FelixLee**

SEO CHANGBIN IS THE CUTEST AND MOST GOODLOOKING MAN IN MY EYES

 

**Hohohominho**

Damn felix needa get his eyes checked :x

 

**Binnie**

I AM WOUNDED PART 2

 

EVERYONE SHUT UP I HAVE A CRISIS

Do i approach cute guy and talk to him

 

**daramjisung**

First of all are you sure he’s real?

 

Yes???

 

**daramjisung**

Then pic, or he ain’t real

¯\\_(ツ)_/ ¯

 

He IS real

He lives four blocks away

 

**Hohohominho**

Oh it’s THAT cute guy

 

**daramjisung**

!!!!

All the more reason to take a pic of him then!!!!

 

Hyunjin rolls his eyes for the third time that night, all because of the same person. Hyunjin takes a peek at the guy again, somehow relieved he’s still standing there. Hyunjin’s only seeing the guy from his side profile but he can see the furrow of his eyebrow and the slight pout of his lips, his unsure eyes scanning the shelves.

 

Fck it

I’m gonna walk up to him and start a conversation

 

**FelixLee**

Attaboy

 

**daramjisung**

HEY SEND A PIC I SAID

 

**YangFox**

Or better yet

Ask him if he wanna hang out with us

 

**daramjisung**

!!!!

I can’t believe i’m saying this but jeongin’s right

 

**YangFox**

I’m always right

 

No way

I’m not gonna ask him that

I’m keeping him away from you guys for as long as possible

You guys are an embarrassing bunch

 

**Binnie**

Rude

 

**Kim Woojin**

But we wanna see this crush of yours!

 

WHAT

i didn’t say i have a crush on him??

 

**CB97**

You don’t have to say it

We already knew ;)

 

**daramjisung**

Yeah man

You said he’s cute

Like a million times now

 

Ok but that doesn’t mean i have a crush on him

 

**Hohohominho**

Protagonist in denial of his feelings

I hate this trope

 

**Binnie**

Just go talk to him

Ask for his name

Ask for his number

Ask him out

Get it over and done with

And get your ass here quick with our snacks

 

**FelixLee**

Perhaps my boyfriend snapped

  


Hyunjin groans. He hates his friends sometimes. Tonight being one of those times.

  
  
  
  


“Ah this is even harder than choosing which college to apply to.” Hyunjin hears the guy said as he approaches him closer, noticing a packet of Maltesers in his hand and gummy bear candy in his other hand. Hyunjin can’t help but to grin at that.

 

“Aren’t you exaggerating?” Hyunjin stands next to the guy and makes his presence known. He hears a quite yelp coming from the guy and grins wider. His hand grabs whatever jelly candies he could find and fill up the basket. “If you can’t choose, then just get both?” he suggests. After all, one can never have too much snacks!

 

His eyes find the packet of sour belts and Hyunjin immediately grabs it to recommend it to the guy. “This one is nice too. Sweet and sour,” Hyunjin finally lifts his head up to look at him, his mouth dropping open in surprise at the sight of the guy. “Oh my god,” he says and the guy looks away, his hand patting on his fluffy bangs. His hair appear light brown under the fluorescent lamp. Now, Hyunjin remembers this guy to be cute, but seeing him in a much better lighting like this only solidifies Hyunjin’s impression of the guy even more. “You’re even so much cuter in good lighting!” Hyunjin exclaims, without really meaning to.

 

“Huh?” the guy flicks a confused gaze at Hyunjin and seems surprised when Hyunjin ruffles his hair. Hyunjin didn’t mean to do that either, but he couldn’t help it!

 

“You’re so cute!” Hyunjin repeats himself. He thinks he sees the blush coloring the guy’s cheeks and that only makes him grin so wide, feeling his own cheeks hurting from how much he’s smiling. “What’s your name?” Hyunjin asks as the guy looks away from him. Hyunjin’s eyes briefly drift to the guy’s hands that are playing with the packets of chocolate and candies before they go right back up to look at the guy. He’s nervous, Hyunjin can tell. Hyunjin wants to tell the guy that it’s okay, but doesn’t want to say it at the same time, afraid that bringing that up would only make the guy even more nervous than he already is, so Hyunjin keeps quiet and pretends he doesn’t notice. “You never told me that night.”

 

“Oh. Umm,” the guy swallows, and then in a quiet voice: “Seungmin…”

 

 _How cute_ , Hyunjin thinks to himself. The name is as cute as the person is! “Seungminnie?” Hyunjin echoes playfully.

 

Seungmin blinks and quickly shakes his head. “No. Just Seungmin. Kim Seungmin.”

 

“Ah,” Hyunjin acknowledges, picking up his shopping basket. “Kim Seungminnie. Got it,” Hyunjin snaps his finger and thumb together, giving a teasing smile at Seungmin. “The name is as cute as you are. You can call me Hyunjin hyung!”

 

Hyunjin wasn’t expecting Seungmin to have the kind of reaction he’s having- cocking his head to side in question, eyebrows seemingly shot up in confusion as he asks “Hyung?”, making Hyunjin bursts out laughing out loud.

 

“Ack you’re really so cute, Seungminnie!”

 

“I-It’s Seungmin!” Seungmin corrects. “And don’t lie to me. You don’t look any older than I am…”

 

“Oh yeah? How old are you then?” Hyunjin asks. He suspects Seungmin couldn’t be any older than Jeongin. They’re probably the same age, or maybe even younger than their youngest friend. But Hyunjin is surprised when Seungmin answered he’s in fact twenty years old, just like Hyunjin is. “Wow, I really thought you were at least a year or two younger than me. We’re the same age after all. When is you birthday?”

 

“Huh? Umm in September.”

 

Hyunjin grins at that. “Mine is in March so I’m technically still older than you! Call me hyung,” he jokes.

 

Seungmin blinks his eyes at Hyunjin cutely and deadpans, “Umm. No.”, causing Hyunjin to burst out laughing again. He decides Seungmin is a cute and funny guy. His laughter fades into a smile. “Anyway, I’m really glad I met you here. I wasn’t sure it was you at first, but thank god it’s really you.”

 

Seungmin has the same shade of pink tinting his cheeks again, but the way he smiles back at Hyunjin makes Hyunjin feels strangely warm and happy inside.

 

Then Hyunjin meets Seungmin’s older brother, Wonpil, whom Hyunjin takes a liking to immediately because he’s so friendly and funny and talks well, and a complete opposite of Seungmin is. The brothers complement each other well, though, and it kind of reminds Hyunjin of his own bond with his older brother.

 

Seungmin is quiet the whole time Hyunjin’s talking with Wonpil, and he even looks a little left out. Hyunjin feels sorry, but snaps out of his thoughts when Wonpil invites him to come have dinner at their place sometimes. Hyunjin smiles a that and says “I would love to!”

  
  
  
  


Hyunjin sees the Kims are still inside the supermarket, standing at the cashier to pay for their things. Hyunjin quickly crouches down next to the entrance door, taking out the packet of sour belts and then forcefully stuffing the rest of the snacks he just bought into his backpack. He digs around and finds a (thankfully working) pen but sadly no paper he could use. There’s an unused napkin that he had probably grabbed from the cafe he’s working at, though, and this will have to do.

 

By now, Seungmin has stepped out carrying brown paper bags in both his arms as he waits for his mom and brother. He doesn’t seem to notice Hyunjin and before he loses his chance, Hyunjin quickly scribbles his kakaotalk username. His handwriting comes out messy because of not writing the message on a steady surface but Hyunjin really has no time to redo it all over again. He puts his backpack on as he stands up from the ground and jogs to Seungmin. “Hey,” he says, having Seungmin’s attention on him immediately.

 

“Hyunjin? What are you still doing here?”

 

Hyunjin grins and shows the packet of candy to Seungmin. “I wanted to give this to you,” Hyunjin slips the packet into one of Seungmin’s jacket pockets, together with the napkin with his message. Seungmin looks like he wanted to say something, but right at the same time, Hyunjin sees his bus pull over at the stop from the corner of his eyes. “Try them, okay?” he says one last time, waving his hand at Seungmin and then running to get on the bus.

 

He smiles all the way to Jisung’s home, not even bothered by his friends teasing him about it. He can’t wait to talk to Seungmin again and get to know him more.

  
  
  
  


“My dude, staring at your phone like that won’t make you miraculously receive Sungjin’s text,” Jisung says, tone of amusement in his voice. Hyunjin’s lying down on his stomach on his bed, hugging a pillow.

 

“It’s Seungmin,” Hyunjin corrects his friend, his voice came out in a mumble. He presses his finger on the screen again when the backlight dims down to inactive mode. Lifting up his phone, he sees no new notification and so drops his phone back down on the mattress.

 

“Sungjin. Seungmin. I see and hear no difference.”

 

“Shut up dumbass,” Hyunjin replies in annoyance. He perks up when his phone dings with new notification, eyes light up with expectation. He deflates almost immediately seeing it’s just new text in their group chat. He throws the snickering Jisung and Felix a glare after seeing a photo of him that Felix took and posted in the group chat, with Jisung making fun of him. Then he put the notification of the chat on mute as he really is not in the mood to entertain his friends.

 

“Very funny. I am not sulking. At all,” Hyunjin says. Even if he is- which he totally _isn’t_ \- he has good reason to! Seungmin still hasn’t friended him on kakaotalk and it’s been 2 days since he gave his username to Seungmin! Maybe Seungmin doesn’t want to be his friend. Okay, maybe he _is_ sulking a little.

 

...Okay, maybe _a lot_.

 

“Oh god, he’s pouting,” Jisung says. “Felix, he’s _pouting_.”

 

Felix only laughs. “Cheer up, mate. Maybe he didn’t get the message. You said you wrote it on a piece of napkin?”

 

“Uhuh.”

 

“Maybe he blew his snot on it and accidentally threw it away without seeing the message,” Jisung supplies unhelpfully. “Ow!” Jisung yelps when Felix hits his arm, the same time Hyunjin groans and shifts his head to look at the wall instead of at his friends.

 

“Go away. Both of you.”

 

“Jin, buddy. Listen,” Felix ignores what Hyunjin just said. “I really think he didn’t see the message. _Or_ , he probably dropped it somewhere.” Hyunjin begins to consider that. Yeah, that’s a possibility. There’s actually a lot of possibilities as to why Seungmin hasn’t tried to find and talk to him yet. He shouldn’t have assumed the worst so early on. But well. Human nature, right?

 

“You can always just find him at his home, you know that right?” Jisung makes a point. “He lives only four blocks away, for goodness sake. Find him and ask him about it.”

 

“He doesn’t go out much,” Hyunjin tells them. They live in the same street but Hyunjin rarely sees Seungmin around.

 

“Why? Is he a hermit?”

 

“Shut up,” Hyunjin sits up and throws his pillow at Jisung.

 

“Hey, rude! We’re only trying to help here!”

 

“Well, Han Jisung, you’re not being really helpful right now,” Hyunjin gives them a fake smile. Jisung and Felix exchange a look.

 

“Felix, I think I know what to do.”

 

“I think I know, too,” Felix agrees with a nod. Hyunjin narrows his eyes in suspicion at his friends looking at each other with a matching cheeky smile on their faces, and then shifting their gazes at Hyunjin.

 

“Hug attack!!” they announces loudly and tackle Hyunjin onto the bed with their hugs.

 

“What the hell!” Hyunjin wanted to scold them but his laughter comes out instead at Felix tickling him and at Jisung nuzzling his face on Hyunjin’s chest. One of his arm finds its way around Jisung’s back after Felix’s stopped tickling him, while the other one around Felix’s shoulders. Hyunjin nuzzles his nose on Jisung’s hair, and the younger guy lets him. His friends know how much of a tactile person he is, knows how affectionate he is, so Hyunjin really appreciates their gesture and attempt of making him feel better like this. Honestly, Hyunjin _does_ feel a little better now.

 

“It’s a really nice weather outside,” Jisung observes. Hyunjin has to agree to that. It’s basically still winter but that day doesn’t feel as cold as the days before today. It’s probably by far the warmest day in winter that year. “Tell you what,” Jisung props himself up with his forearms on the mattress. “Let’s all go to the park today,” he suggests. “And you can go to Seungmin’s house and invite him to join us.”

 

“Oh, I’d like that,” Felix sits up on the bed. “I’ll tell the others now,” Felix says before Hyunjin could say anything. Felix takes his phone out and informs the rest of the gang immediately.

 

“How’s that as being helpful?” Jisung smirks. Hyunjin thinks it’s a good idea actually and grins back at Jisung.

 

“Ugh, you’re so useless,” Hyunjin jokes, and when Jisung whines loudly in protest, Hyunjin pulls him back down into a hug. “Thank you, Sungie,” he murmurs into Jisung’s hair.

 

“Can’t breathe,” Jisung fake-chokes. At that, Hyunjin only tightens his limbs around Jisung even more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy weekend, lovelies! <3  
> you can always find and talk to me on twitter [@seungjinstar](http://twitter.com/seungjinstar) <3


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